How Do I Work This?
by MadnessinmyMethod
Summary: IMPORTANT NOTE FOR FORMER READERS! Set several years in the future, Neji and Tenten are sent on a mission that appears completely ridiculous but may in fact hold more danger than they anticipate.NejiTen. T mostly for language.
1. How Now Brown Cow: An Introduction

_**How Do I Work This?**_

**By MadnessinmyMethod**

* * *

_**Chapter One: How Now Brown Cow: An Introduction**_

* * *

_Neji and Tenten had almost always been excellent teammates. Neji had intimidated Tenten for the longest time and it took Neji quite awhile to understand and respect Tenten. She originally thought Neji was far superior to her in every way and stood in awe of him. He had thought Tenten was boring, somewhat strange, and generally beneath his notice._

_But working together each day, particularly with such characters as their mentor, Gai-sensei, and their fellow teammate, Rock Lee, brought them closer. Every now and then, Tenten fancied herself in love (or as she called it "deep like") with Neji. Occasionally, Neji found himself more than fond of Tenten. But these impulses were never acted upon. They were too busy training, or going on missions etc. It wasn't the right time to say anything._

_And so they grew. Their friendship and teamwork was rivaled by few. Their skills developed. Neji always beat Tenten, but that never seemed to matter. When he became a chunin, she worked harder to become one too. And when he became a jounin, it was not long before she joined him._

* * *

Tenten saw one of Neji's students running through the streets in her direction. She struggled to remember his name. The boy had a fine shock of red hair and, if Tenten remembered correctly, he had a personality that was a cruel combination of Rock Lee and Uzumaki Naruto. Poor Neji!

"Ah-ha!" she said to herself, finally remembering his name.

The boy skidded to a halt in front of her. "Tenten-sensei," he panted.

"Yes?" she asked.

"Tsunade-sama wishes to see you," he said, a little less breathlessly.

"Thank you, Zei-kun." Tenten nodded at the poor boy and leapt off. As fun as it could be to send the genin on all the silly errands, there had to be a more effective mode of communication. Tenten pondered this as she went, gazing idly at the scenes around her. Lee training his own team of genin, Sakura exasperated by Sai and Naruto during yet another of their "manly eating contests" (ramen, of course), a couple kids throwing their kunai at a tree.

By the time she had finished her pondering of communication and the various goings-on of Konoha, Tenten had reached the much loathed stairs that led to the Hokage's office and she was forced to climb them all. All three-hundred and forty-six of them (she had counted them a few years ago). Tenten knocked resolutely on the office door, wondering what fate lay ahead of her.

"Come in, Tenten," she heard the Hokage call. Tenten breathed a sigh of relief at Tsunade's lack of extreme agitation. The Hokage could be horribly unforgiving at times.

Tenten found that there were four people besides herself in the office, three of whom she knew very well, and one who was a complete stranger. The three she knew were Tsunade, the esteemed Hokage; Shizune, Tsunade's honorable aide and protégé; and Neji, Tenten's own particular friend and comrade.

"Now that everyone is here," Tsunade said, "we can begin. Shizune," she prompted.

"Neji, Tenten, this is Mr. Artsuma Takeda," Shizune said, introducing the stranger. "He is our client for this mission. Mr. Takeda has a son named Shou who is engaged to be married to a young lady named Kuma. Recently the couple has disappeared and because of Mr. Takeda's important standing in this country, abduction is suspected."

"So we have to find them?" Neji asked. It seemed to him to be a silly thing for two jounin to do when perhaps one jounin and his genin team, or even a few chunin would suffice.

"Yes," said Shizune, "but that is not all that you must accomplish. Shou's and Kuma's presence is required for certain events beyond Mr. Takeda's control, so the two of you must pretend to be the couple."

"Come again?" Tenten asked a little too loudly.

"Shizune," Tsunade interrupted irritably, "perhaps you had best escort our guest to the lobby to fill out the paperwork while I explain the rest of the mission."

"Yes, Tsunade-sama. If you will please follow me, Mr. Takeda."

The office was silent until the door was firmly shut and Tsunade was sure their client was completely out of earshot. "Look, you two. Mr. Takeda is credibly wealthy. This mission and its success are highly important to the financial well-being of this village and therefore your well-being. Do I make myself clear?"

"Hai," Neji and Tenten said quickly, both with absolutely no doubt in their minds that Tsunade was perfectly capable of carrying out that threat.

"Good. Now the two of you will put on a very convincing act as the engaged couple. You will recover the real couple and do whatever else Artsuma Takeda asks of you. I trust you will handle this professionally. That is why I chose you both for this mission."

They nodded.

"Here's a photograph of Kuma and Shou. A standard genjustsu ought to do the trick. I have some basic files on them so you may acquaint yourselves with their characters and lives. I'm sure Mr. Takeda will fill you in on any other necessary details." She paused, giving Tenten and Neji time to look at the photograph of the smiling couple and glance through the files ("No fair! Neji gets to be a masochistic bastard! I just get to be a lame airhead!" "What's the difference from usual?" "Neji, you jerk!" "SHUT UP!")

"Now then," Tsunade said a little heatedly. "Go join Shizune and Mr. Takeda in the lobby and get out of here. Don't screw up. Oh, your genjutsus!"

Neji and Tenten nodded and transformed themselves into an engaged couple. Neji ran his hand through Shou's short hair. He grimaced. "Weird."

"No kidding," Tenten said. "My boobs got bigger!"

Tsunade sighed as they departed from her office. "And here I thought two jounin from Konoha could be professional. What has the world come to?"

"Baachan!"

"Oh, hell no!"

* * *

Within a half an hour, Neji and Tenten had been shoved into a carriage with Artsuma Takeda and were on their way to some obscure portion of the Fire Country that would take a day and a half to reach. The worst part of the journey however was being trapped in a confined space while Mr. Takeda told the story of how Shou and Kuma had met.

"…when she saw him save those poor kittens, it was love at first sight."

Tenten mouthed the words "gag me" at Neji who smirked in reply. He was trying to be slightly more expressive since Shou clearly talked more than Neji did.

Neji and Tenten tried to hold in their sighs when they finally stopped for the night, but their relief was rather evident as they stood outside the cozy looking hotel.

"Well," said Artsuma Takeda quietly as they entered, "Shou and Kuma usually share a room. I trust you have no problem with that." Neji and Tenten had a huge problem with that. Did this man think that ninjas were savages with no sense of decency? Tenten was about to open her mouth to give the man a piece of her mind, but Neji put a hand on her shoulder to quiet her.

"It will be perfectly fine," he said shortly.

"Fantastic," Mr. Takeda said and Tenten struggled to suppress thought on how thrilled the man must be about saving money by only getting his ninjas one room and how she longed to tear him limb from limb very slowly.

When at last Neji and Tenten were alone, all hell broke loose. "Who does he think he is thinking ninjas have no morality? What gives him the right? He's a bastard. A total bastard. He's just lucky he's rich or I'd wipe the floor with him. I'd… I'd—"

"Tenten!" Neji said loudly. He had been trying to interrupt her for awhile now.

"What?" she snapped.

"I'll sleep on the floor if it'll make you feel better."

"Oh, Neji, I'm not worried about _that_. It's just that pompous Artsuma Takeda. And dear gods, the kitten story. What a nightmare!"

Neji continued to listen to Tenten rant, pausing only to open the door and allow the hotel staff to bring in dinner. "Perhaps you should eat, Tenten," Neji said. She nodded and continued to spew out gibberish between intervals of actual eating.

Eventually, even Tenten ran out of things to talk about having digressed not too long ago about how bushy Lee's eyebrows had gotten ("I swear, they're alive or something, Neji!").

"Sleeping would be advisable," Neji said.

"You're probably going to have to stop using such big words, Neji. I doubt Shou knows what "advisable" means," Tenten replied with a smile.

"Hn."

"Oh alright then. Sleeping it is." She giggled.

"Pervert," Neji muttered turning off the lights one by one.

"I didn't say anything!" Tenten protested.

"You were thinking it," he replied.

"So now you're a mind reader too?"

"Yes."

"Alright then, Neji, what am I thinking?"

Neji did a very terrible impersonation of a girl. "Oh my god, like, Neji is so much awesomer than me!" Tenten raised her hand to smack him, but he caught her arm deftly. "See? Awesome."

"Jerk."

He smirked and let her go. "So about those perverted things I was _allegedly_ thinking about," she said, "in your dreams, perv. And try not to hog all the covers tonight. I may just have to beat you with a stick if you do and you know I have several sizable ones for the job."

"Hn," Neji replied and joined her under the small pile of blankets the hotel had provided them.

For a few moments they lay quietly in the dark, but that of course didn't last. "Neji, stop grabbing my ass."

"I'm not."

"Then who is?"

"I don't know."

"Is there anyone else in this bed?"

"Doubtful."

"Then it must be you!"

"Tenten, with all due respect, you're full of shit. Go to sleep."

* * *

_And so began Neji's and Tenten's harrowing adventure. An adventure involving pirates, buried treasure, and dark terrible magic…_

_Okay, so their adventure would have none of those things, but it would be a great adventure nonetheless, one that would test the ties of their relationship either to bring them closer together than ever before or to tear them tragically apart forevermore._

* * *

**Author's Note: Hey Everyone, I hope you enjoyed this first chapter of How Do I Work This? I've been working for a few months now figuring out how to write a decent NejiTen fic and hopefully I haven't completely (pardon my language here) fucked this up. Well, I feel pretty confident about it's quality anyway, so I hope you liked reading it as much as I liked writing it and please leave a review if you don't mind. Next Chapter should be up probably within a week.**


	2. One Hundred, Oh Really?

_**Chapter Two: One-Hundred: Oh Really?**_

* * *

Neji woke up to what could be truthfully and accurately described as the most awkward position he had ever been in throughout his relatively short life. At some point during the night he and Tenten had moved far closer together—very close indeed. Tenten lay snuggled against his thankfully covered chest with her arms wrapped intricately around him. Their legs were tangled together. And, furthermore, Neji's own hands had betrayed him, going on a "field trip" under Tenten's shirt to her bare back.

In short, Neji feared that when Tenten did awaken, he might possibly be murdered, maimed, or in some way prevented from being able to produce children in the future. Cautiously, he undid some of the more offensive occurrences of their slumber, chiefly the positioning of their limbs, and as he moved to untangle their legs last, Tenten showed signs of awakening.

Naturally, Neji instantly stopped moving and evened out his breathing so that he might be able to feign sleep. He closed his eyes and listened. Neji felt Tenten moving against him and heard her yawn loudly.

"Well, this is interesting," she muttered. Tenten rolled off of him and Neji decided it might finally be a good time to "wake up."

Tenten grinned at him toothily. "Morning, Sunshine," she said. "You're always awake before I am," she continued—which was true, but she had the advantage of being an uncannily quick thinker in the early hours of the morning. "How badly were we arranged?"

Neji managed a small smile, rather impressed that he had been caught so thoroughly. "I think you'd best not know," he replied.

She bit her lip. "That bad, huh? Well, there's only one thing to do." Tenten reached out and smacked him rather hard across the back of the head. "Now we're even."

"I was asleep," Neji protested, shocked by the abuse.

"Still your hands."

"So unfair," he muttered.

* * *

Breakfast was an interesting affair to say the least. Artsuma Takeda thought it best to join the two ninjas for the morning chiefly to "tell them about Shou and Kuma." Tenten, who generally liked her mornings to be peaceful, as did Neji, was completely furious, far more so than her companion, at Artsuma Takeda's presumptuous behavior.

Tenten, though she would never admit it to the man himself, was not so angry with his coming as she was with the earliness of his calling and total lack of regard for their needs. Despite a stern look from Neji, Tenten felt the need to say, "Mr. Takeda, if you have any hope of me looking suitable in the morning as your future daughter-in-law would, you must give me more time to prepare myself." She ignored Neji's pointed glare. She wanted boundaries to be set.

That was the only unpleasant event of the morning that was Tenten's doing. They proceeded to eat the breakfast that the hotel staff brought them and Artsuma Takeda informed them that they would reach his home _that_ very afternoon if they made good time and _that_ very evening they would be hosting what he called a "small event."

Neji felt particularly suspicious and asked, "How many people is that then?"

"Oh, about a hundred," Artsuma Takeda replied offhandedly.

Tenten struggled to keep her eyes from bursting out of their sockets as she repeated, "A hundred?"

"And there are supposed to be people we 'know' as this _event_?" Neji continued levelly.

"Indeed," Artsuma Takeda replied, completely oblivious, "which we shall discuss on the journey."

Tenten was surprisingly silent, but that was simply because, unbeknownst to Artsuma Takeda, Neji had stomped upon her foot and his look indicated that more physical pain would follow as retribution for whatever Tenten decided was necessary communication to which he did not agree (her mind screamed about suppression, but she smiled back at Neji). And Tenten could not help but say, "Why, Neji, I believe you're falling into character perfectly."

* * *

The rest of their journey passed without any violence, a fact which was terribly remarkable, but Tenten did find herself incredibly frustrated with the large number of people she had to pretend to know, a good portion of which would be at the "small event," and despite the array of glossy photographs and visual aides Artsuma Takeda provided, she grew increasingly worried. She wondered how Neji could possibly be coping with all that they had been subjected to. As she continued to think, her agitation continued to swell.

Kuma and Shou had a large group of friends and acquaintances, but from Artsuma Takeda's description of their social sphere, both Tenten and Neji doubted whether these friends and acquaintances really knew each other intimately, which, admittedly, made their task a great deal easier. The more Tenten continued to think, the more she wanted to stretch her fingers around their client's neck and squeeze the life out of him for his insults, lack of propriety, and selfishness. It would hardly surprise her if, rather than being kidnapped, Kuma and Shou had simply eloped to escape this horrid, overbearing man.

Artsuma Takeda was apparently not a man who could bear silence particularly well. Soon after he had finished all explanations of the "small event," he began to attempt small talk which Neji repulsed with swift, typically monosyllabic answers before Tenten engaged in a conversation that would make her more furious than she already was. He planned on having a talk with her later about controlling her rage and perhaps would remind her of Tsunade's wrath (Hell hath no fury like a Tsunade scorned).

Neji was staring at the windy landscape outside the carriage window when Artsuma Takeda made his most imprudent attempt at small talk yet. "You do realize, I hope," he said, "that the two of you will have to act more like an engaged couple as far as physical signs of affection go? Shou and Kuma are very public about their relationship."

"We are well aware of what this mission requires," Neji replied firmly, seeing Tenten turn slightly red. "If you have no further factual information concerning the lives we are pretending to live, then you need no longer discuss it. I imagine you wish this to remain secret." That was perhaps the most Neji had ever been inclined to say to Artsuma Takeda and the look on the shinobi's face told even their horribly foolish client to shut up.

* * *

When their journey was complete and Neji and Tenten were presented with Artsuma Takeda's enormous estate, both were forced to privately admit that their client did have some right too his assholish behavior, though only a very small amount. The mansion was rather sizable to the point at which even Neji, who had spent a great deal of time in the Hyuga Compound, was impressed. To Tenten, who was even less accustomed to large, palatial structures and certainly did not feel like she belonged in them, the mansion was something that was quite mind-altering.

Tenten could only suppose (correctly at that) that the mansion contained at least a hundred rooms and chambers, which likely required the staffing of dozens of servants. From the outside, the estate was what Tenten would describe as heavenly. The lawn and garden were immaculate and the architecture of the house was flawless, filled with sweeping arches and sliding doors. The walls spiraled upward into castle-like turrets without exuding too much of a medieval air.

The inside of the mansion was a continuation of the outward graceful effects. Large, elegant windows ushered light into every room. In short, the atmosphere was worthy of a rant or two on Tenten's part. She had little time to do so, for she and Neji were soon shoved off to their separate chambers where they were mobbed by a few servants each who were to physically prepare them for their evening appearance as Kuma and Shou.

* * *

"No, I do not want anymore goddamn glitter," Tenten shouted at a scandalized looking maid who supposed the lady's anger had to be due to an oncoming menstrual cycle for she had never been yelled at by Shou's lovely fiancé before. Tenten made a mental note to set half the cosmetics that had been used on her ablaze later and quickly became distracted by what might happen when the highly offensive glitter made contact with flames and whether it was actually flammable or not.

Preoccupied by such interesting conjectures, Tenten paid little attention to the questionable outfit the maids were stuffing her into, which would cause a great amount of distress when she looked in the mirror later.

Neji bore the abuse as best he could. He certainly did not enjoy being poked and prodded any more than Tenten, but he kept fairly quiet about it and used only disapproving glares to make his displeasure known.

Indeed, he had barely a moment to collect himself after the servants left before Tenten burst into the room. She was squeezed into a very small dress with a plunging neckline and though it was Kuma's image, Neji could not stop his mind from wandering and placing the real Tenten in that questionable ensemble.

Tenten flicked Kuma's long red hair behind her shoulder. "So," she said, "we have, what, an hour, till this _thing_ starts?"

Neji nodded.

"Do we have a particular plan?"

Neji frowned and sat down in one of the shockingly uncomfortable chairs in the room. "Stick together, trick everyone into thinking we're Shou and Kuma, and do a little investigating perhaps."

"Incidentally, we should ask Artsuma Takeda if he needs us tomorrow. Otherwise we can ditch the disguises for a bit and look into who the man's enemies are and who would want to kidnap Shou and Kuma. Though I wouldn't be surprised if they eloped."

Neji nodded again. "I'll talk to him when I have the chance. By the way, you really need to control your temper."

"What temper?"

"Hn."

"What temper, Neji?"

"The man is rich. Make some allowances."

"You're rich too, Neji, but you're not nearly such an arrogant ass."

"Funny," Neji said, smirking, "I seem to remember you using that exact expression to describe me on _several_ occasions."

Tenten let out a puff of air and selected another of the uncomfortable chairs to sit in. "Wow, this chair is really suckish."

"Hn," Neji agreed.

"Yeah, I don't think Shou says 'hn.'"

* * *

**Author's Note: Hey, Everyone. A big thank you first of all to everyone who read, reviewed, alerted etc last chapter. I hope this chapter lived up to expectations or exceeded them even. Please continue reading and reviewing. It helps me work harder and keeps me motivated as well as makes the story better with your own suggestions. Anyway, next chapter will be out in a week (actually may take either more or less time because I leave for vacation on Saturday... sorry) and hopefully it won't take me an unusally large amount of time like this author's note. I blame my cat (felines are very good at being distracting, even old lazy ones with kidney failure). Thanks for reading!**


	3. Window Shopping

_**Chapter Three: Window Shopping**_

* * *

Tenten was so thoroughly nervous that she did not mind that she had to cling to Neji like a fiancé. In fact, she was glad of the support for she feared that she would probably collapse without him. She had never been in any way comfortable in crowds, preferring any sort of social gathering to contain only her most immediate friends and acquaintances. Upon entering the ballroom on Neji's arm, she was struck by how large a number one-hundred was. It was only a shame that Kuma wasn't the drinking type because Tenten felt she could use a bracing shot of sake or perhaps a gin and tonic.

"It'll be alright," Neji whispered in her ear, appearing as though a lover whispering "sweet nothings" as poets put it. "Just stay with me."

Tenten nodded emphatically. "Can we just find a corner or something?"

Neji put a comforting arm around her. He knew Tenten did terribly with important crowds. He learned that the hard way when he had invited her to the Hyuga family reunion to keep him from going insane with all his annoying relatives. She had a major meltdown within fifteen minutes and not only had the crowd been half the size of this one, but she had also been on pleasant terms with most of them. Thankfully, Neji had still escaped his relatives by taking Tenten home but not without some emotional trauma.

They settled down in a pair of chairs by the windows. Unlike the furniture in Neji's room, these chairs were actually very comfortable. "These shoes suck ass," Tenten said. "They're pretty and all, but very impractical."

Neji nodded, surveying the crowd. Many eyes were turned toward them, several of which looked a bit worried. "Tenten," he said softly, "we're getting weird looks."

Tenten looked off towards where Neji was people watching and saw the worried eyes. "I think they're expecting us to be sucking face," she said matter-of-factly.

"Sucking face?" Neji echoed blankly.

"Kissing."

"Oh," he said uncomfortably. "I guess so…" They stared at each other and Neji cleared his throat awkwardly.

"You look more like you're going to eat me than kiss me," Tenten teased.

"Do not."

"Do too. You look like this," she said, twisting her face to look like a mad cannibal, however it was she presumed that mad cannibals appeared.

"Oh, shut up," Neji said, and to enforce the command he smashed his lips over hers so she couldn't utter a word. Their eyes closed and though they wore the skins of Kuma and Shou it was Tenten and Neji in their minds' eye.

They broke apart gasping.

"Damn, you're good," Tenten said at last. There was little more time for reflection as Artsuma Takeda appeared, placing his hand on Neji's shoulder with "fatherly" affection.

"Shou, my boy," he declared jovially, "you and your lovely fiancé must meet a new acquaintance of mine…"

Neji and Tenten followed after him quietly, barely listening to his incessant prattle. There was a new sense of easiness in the way Tenten leaned her head against Neji's shoulder and the way Neji curled his fingers around Tenten's hip. A few onlookers lost their worried countenances. The tension they had perceived in the couple at their arrival had melted away. Yet other eyes still looked upon them with a less than friendly glance.

The sun began to set and the light that entered the grand, sparkling white room was replaced with the dancing flames of nearly a thousand candles scattered about liberally. Neji and Tenten met Artsuma Takeda's new acquaintance—an equally wealthy man from the next town over named Yoshimoto or Yoshichiro or something like that—with polite indifference. The two were soon swept away onto the dance floor as a small orchestra began playing at one end of the hall.

The evening seemed to blur and they danced with identical grins plastered on their faces. Indeed few could have doubt that Neji and Tenten were engaged to be married.

Tenten's breathing was a little labored. "I'm tired." Neji nodded. "Not to mention, I'm starving like a—"

"I'm afraid of how that metaphor is going to end," Neji interrupted, knowing Tenten's preoccupation with all things morbid when she was particularly famished.

"Simile," she said.

"What?"

"That was a simile. Or the beginning of one anyway. You need to read more."

"Reading is for quitters," Neji said firmly.

"Gasp."

"Did you just say 'gasp'?"

"What if I did?"

"You argue too much. Just eat something, would you?"

Tenten rolled her eyes and approached the large array of food that had taken the kitchen staff the entire day to prepare. She had a hard time selecting, but she reasoned that she would have a great deal of time to eat like a queen on this mission and patience was, after all, a virtue. Neji laughed silently as he watched the mound on her plate grow to rival his own. She glared at him. "Jugdy McJudger."

Neji looked at her with alarm.

"That's right. I said it."

He shook his head and followed her to one of the elegant tables by the windows. Neji felt incredibly uneasy. He and Tenten had been thrown into very few situations in which they were supposed to know the people they were conversing with. Paranoid or not, he was suspicious of the lack of challenge in the evening. He doubted that Kuma and Shou ever spent an evening like this without being surrounded by people and he refused to chalk it up to people letting the engaged couple have as much "alone time' as possible.

Neji considered relating all this to Tenten, but he couldn't tell who was possibly listening to every word they said. Not to mention the mission was already putting Tenten under a great deal of stress due to its social complexities. It was not to say that Tenten was delicate. He was one of the fiercest women Neji knew (and he knew quite a few) and he held her in the highest esteem. Tenten was easily intimidated in social situations though, and at times Neji blamed himself for he was constantly a stand-offish cold fish.

He reached out and took Tenten's hand in his own and smiled reassuringly. Tenten smiled back and he could feel her grow less tense as she breathed deeply for a moment.

"Oops, sorry." Tenten blinked, realizing that a large, busty woman has spilled her glass of water all over the table cloth and onto the floor.

"Oh, it's fine," Tenten said. "I'll just get another—"

"Oh no, Lady Kuma, please take my glass." The woman hurried away before Tenten could refuse.

She looked over at Neji who shrugged. "Weird. Well, at least I don't have to get up now," Tenten said, sipping from the busty woman's glass. Neji nodded and gazed off into space as he often did when he had nothing else better to do.

There was a small door made of glass that blended well with the windows since they stretched all the way to the floor so that few people had noticed it. It led out into a pretty little garden that was normally kept in perfect shape by the staff of gardeners at Artsuma Takeda's command. Neji was one of the few people who had seen the well-camouflaged door. "It's a nice night," he said. "Would you like to go for a walk?"

"Think we're allowed?"

Neji smiled. "I don't see why not."

Tenten grinned. "I won't tell if you don't."

* * *

It was probably about mid-spring as far as Neji could guess. He didn't tend to keep proper track of time. The night air was fresh and pleasant. It was neither too hot nor too cold. Tenten held onto his arm in case they should run into anyone on their walk, but the chances of that were very slim.

Tenten sighed deeply. "Oh, Neji, how can you be so calm about this?" she asked, uttering his name very quietly.

"I know it's stressful for you," Neji replied, "but remember, you are a Konoha kunoichi, a jounin at that. You can do anything and it is duty to your village that drives you. It is this honor that drives all of us."

Tenten grinned. She was listening to Neji's "honor speech" which he usually delivered to his genin team when they did something silly and particularly as a motivational tool for his troublesome charge, Zei.

"I'm just glad you're here," Tenten told him. "I… I don't think I could pull this off with anyone else… I wouldn't want to…"

Neji stared at her as if trying to see past Kuma to the Tenten underneath. He felt a deep desire within him to cast aside the genjutsu and stand simply as Neji and Tenten, but logic tossed this idea by the wayside. Tenten's words seemed to linger in the air and in his mind. He needed to respond, but Neji could not think of any good words worth saying.

He stopped and took Tenten's face in his hands and Tenten realized he was contemplating kissing her. She panicked. "Neji, no one is watching us," she said. She hated herself for being afraid in that moment, but Neji was part of the illustrious Hyuga Clan, and even though he was a branch family, he was still expected to marry well, not a girl with no clan name to speak of. Therefore, not Tenten.

Neji felt the color rising in his cheeks as he surveyed her discomfort. He sighed and removed his hands. He didn't want to be the cause of her pain. Disappointment washed through him. "Sorry," he said softly. He could feel his heart breaking in his chest and wanted only to be alone, but his own words about honor and duty rang painfully in his head. "We should go back inside."

Tenten wanted to go drown herself in one of the fountains in the garden that filled the quiet night with their soft, bubbling gurgle. Instead, she linked her arm through Neji's again and replied, "Yes, I think you're right."

Time moved horribly slow. Neji and Tenten wished only for the night to end so they could each seek the safety and solitude of their own minds, but the guests showed no inclination towards leaving and the party no sign of ending.

"Sometimes I want to steal a lighter from a chain smoker and set things on fire," Tenten muttered to herself. She didn't realize that Neji had heard her.

"Pyro," he breathed.

Tenten turned red and tried not to glare at him. _I wonder if I should just bail now and risk facing Tsunade-sama's wrath_, she thought miserably. _It couldn't possibly be worse than this. I can't imagine things getting worse_.

Tenten was usually a quick study and tended to grasp most concepts with ease. But Tenten was also a human being and therefore prone to various faults and shortcomings. One of these faults was the inability to learn certain life lessons no matter how many times she paid for them. There were three life lessons that eluded her most frequently.

The first was that going drinking with Lee and Neji was a bad idea. She had the tattoo (or as Neji teasingly called it "the tramp stamp") to prove it.

The second lesson was that saying she could not accomplish something in front of Gai-sensei meant fulfilling one of his ludicrous, self-imposed rules.

The third and most important lesson to date was when she admitted that things could not possibly get any worse, they did. Always.

Neji and Tenten both knew that when a cold wind swept through the ballroom, extinguishing every last candle and eliciting screams from several of the guests who were faint of heart, that despite the shouted reassuring statements of Artsuma Takeda, something was horribly, horribly wrong.

Tenten's fingers fumbled wildly as she felt for the kunai and other bladed weapons that she had hidden in her sash as the maids left her room. The metal of the shuriken quickly warmed between her fingers.

An earsplitting crash of glass on tile echoed through the room as the windows shattered inward. People screamed, some in pain from the flying glass and some out of fear that they would suffer next.

Neji muttered "Byukagan" harshly amidst the chaos. The veins bulged out from his face and Tenten gripped his arm tightly. "What do you see?" she whispered in his ear. Her breath was hot on his neck.

"There are so many people I can't tell if any of them are to blame," he answered quietly.

"Neji—" But he never heard what she had to say. Someone in the panicking crowd crashed into them and drove them apart.

"Tenten!" he shouted, not caring who heard. Everyone was screaming anyway. Pansies.

"Damn, Hundred People," Tenten spat, shoving a person off of her. "Where is that man?" An unfamiliar hand gripped her arm. She twisted, but this wasn't the grip of a panicking partygoer. Tenten lashed out with her kunai. She was blinded by the darkness, but she could make a good guess as to where her assailant was.

Sure enough, she felt the kunai tear into flesh and heard a gasp of pain followed by a coarse man's voice muttering, "Damn bitch."

Another hand came out of the darkness and took hold of her other arm. Tenten felt herself struggling far too much as her kunai was forced out of her hand. Something wasn't right. She was a jounin. How could she already be tiring at a point when a genin would be sparking with indomitable energy? _Something's draining me_, she realized, trying to shake off her attackers.

"NEJI!" she screamed.

"Gag her, dammit," her first attacker said roughly.

"I have a better idea," the other replied.

Tenten tried to get her elbow into someone's gut as a rag was pressed over her face. _What's that smell? Ammonia? Bleach? Whatever the fuck that chemical is that they use to make you pass_—Tenten went unconscious.

Neji miraculously had heard her scream. He ran, shoving over everyone who stood in his way. Even in the dark, he could see a large black lump that look like maybe three people huddled together, moving quickly towards the windows, or what was left of them. "Stop!" he shouted.

One of them looked back and laughed as they ran out the windows. Neji followed, crunching broken glass into more fragments beneath his feet. It had started raining outside and water spattered across Neji's face. Tenten and her abductors were gone. Neji could find no sign of them anywhere. If Neji's heart had been broken before, now he was surely dead.

* * *

**Author's Note: First of all, I'd like to thank everyone for waiting longer for Chapter Three while I went away on vacation, getting sunburns and remarkably tanner than my older brother (never happens). Speaking of my older brother, I would like to give some sort of credit to him. It's thanks to him that I get a lot of my jokes, so here's to my brother for being the best inspiration I could ask for. And so before I get emotional and rambling, I bid you adieu and ask that you leave a review, because it will probably bribe me to update faster (I never said I was a saint). **


	4. Cantaloupe: In Which Neji Starts To

_**Chapter Four: **_Cantaloupe: In Which Neji Starts To Lose It

* * *

Someone had finally come across some matches to light the candles again. Neji turned back to the ballroom and saw the glowing light through the shattered windows. He walked slowly back inside like a dead man ignoring everything—the shards of glass poking through his shoes, the guests who shrieked from their glass-related injuries, and the people who switched from panicked to perky almost instantly.

Neji didn't stop until he reached Artsuma Takeda who looked at him with little alarm. "Strange storm, eh, m'boy?"

"Just how many enemies do have?" Neji asked harshly.

"W-what?"

"Someone took her," Neji replied coldly.

"But… but she's a—"

"I know. So I'm asking, just how many enemies do you have?"

Artsuma Takeda sank down in his chair as his legs weakened. He was not worried about Tenten. No, he was far too selfish for that. What worried him was that someone capable of subduing and kidnapping a highly ranked kunoichi had easily entered his hone and made threats against his family. Not only that, but since the real Kuma and Shou were in all likelihood being held against their will, he had threats coming from two distinct parties.

Neji did not pretend to believe that Artsuma Takeda cared. The man looked up at Neji. "This is bad. What do I do?"

"You should send all these people away. Do not let any servants clean the area. I want to look at the uncontaminated scene. I'm going to request more help from Konoha. To warn you, tracking two threats to your family is likely going to increase not only the rank of the mission, but the cost as well."

"Money is no object as long as I have my children and their safety," Artsuma Takeda said absently.

"Then I'll go write a letter then," Neji said curtly, leaving Artsuma Takeda to regain his own composure.

Neji was soon seated at a desk in an uncomfortable chair with a pen in hand and a sheet of paper before him.

_Hokage-sama,_

_The situation with Artsuma Takeda has quickly become quite complicated. During an event with approximately one-hundred guests on the evening of our arrival, Tenten was abducted. I can only imagine what sort of enemy could subdue such a skilled kunoichi and escape me in such a short duration of temporary chaos during which the lights were extinguished and the windows shattered. From the moment they left the building, I could not track them._

_Being that the mission has expanded to the investigation of two threats and the recovery of three kidnapped persons, I request additional aide (cost is no object for Mr. Takeda). It is my suggestion, if they can be spared, that you send me my genin team as well as Rock Lee and his team. If they are not available, ninja of the equivalent ability would be extremely useful. I believe the situation requires it._

_-Hyuga Neji, Branch Family_

Neji sighed and put his pen down. "This isn't good," he said softly and sealed the envelope. He stood up and left the room to go find Artsuma Takeda, giving the letter to one of the servants he met along the way to be mailed by the fastest post possible. Neji found his client in the ballroom, gazing at the ruin of the splintered windows.

"Could we clean the glass at least?" Artsuma Takeda whined.

"No." Neji released the genjutsu he had been holding. It seemed to be very unimportant at this point. "Do you still want me to pretend to be your son?" he asked as an afterthought.

Artsuma Takeda shook his head. "No, rumors about Kuma have already leaked. No one expects to see Shou and your presence will not be questioned."

Neji nodded, vaguely relishing the fact that he could feel his long hair moving about. "I've sent a letter to Konoha requesting the support of my genin team as well as my friend and his team. Seven more ninja on the job should help considerably."

"Thank you."

"You are lucky I have a stake in this with a missing comrade," Neji said, no longer caring if he insulted the man (Tenten would have been screaming hours ago if their roles were reversed), "I think you are a fool."

Artsuma Takeda gaped at him.

"I'm investigating the scene now. I am not to be disturbed." Neji walked away with very little concern for the various scathing looks Artsuma Takeda directed at his back; the stupid man was unaware of the fact that Neji had nearly three-hundred and sixty degree vision. The shinobi quite simply and frankly did not give a damn about the rich man's opinion.

Neji walked over to a point towards the middle of the room where he and Tenten had been when the lights went out. He closed his eyes, recalling the screams of alarm which quickly multiplied when the windows burst inward. Neji had felt Tenten fumble for weapon. Before the party, Tenten had coolly informed him that she had a few kunai and six shuriken hidden on her person if he needed to borrow any of them during the evening.

And then Neji had tried searching the area with his Byukagan which failed miserably. There were so many people running around that it had been impossible to pick out anyone who was acting in a particularly shifty manner. For all he knew, the kidnappers had been at the party the entire time. The more Neji thought about it, the more it made sense. He made a mental note to ask Artsuma Takeda for a guest list.

He turned back to his reenactment. Soon after the Byukagan failed, someone had crashed into them and shoved them apart. Tenten had been swept up by the crowd and Neji had lost her. Five, maybe ten, minutes later he had heard her scream his name and had gone running after her.

Neji looked to the spot where Tenten had been dragged out the windows. Somewhere between those windows and where they had last stood together, Tenten had been attacked and subdued. He glanced around, a silvery metallic substance catching his eye.

He walked over to the spot and picked up a kunai. Neji turned it over in his hands, finding what he hoped he would: the number "10" engraved on the handle. It was Tenten's alright. He couldn't help smiling as he saw the tip was coated in red blood that though dry was still relatively fresh.

"At least she got some sort of attack in," he mused aloud. "But that still doesn't explain how two people managed to hold her long enough to knock her out."

Neji ran his fingers through his hair as he thought. Could one of the men have the ability to drain chakra? But then Neji would have felt some of the effects as well and he hadn't. And why send a chakra drainer to kidnap an ordinary woman like Kuma was supposed to be? Unless Kuma wasn't an ordinary woman, but that hardly seemed relevant and he had already disproved the theory anyway.

"Ok, let's try this," he said to himself, "if I were going to kidnap Kuma, how would I do?" Neji began pacing. "A large party… so causing confusion would be ideal to stop someone from helping her. But we need someone inside to watch her and grab her when it's time. And then she'd be with Shou, so they need to get separated." He stopped and tapped his chin. "That's what they've done so far. But then there's the question of her fighting. Artsuma Takeda will have her on her guard. So she might be able to fight. So… so they'd have to disable her before they make their move. Drug her or something. Then grabbing her and knocking her out is simple. Tenten is stronger so she's a little harder to handle, but even then they get the job done… But when was she drugged?"

Neji began pacing again, looking up every now and then to glare at the highly vexed Artsuma Takeda and ignoring the persistent crunch of glass under his feet as it continued to break and spider web into a fine dust. He came to a stop at the gaping holes in the walls. The immediate area around the windows was coated with a fine black dust, the remnants of a simple explosive powder. One spark would have started a chain reaction down the line of windows. "Now I wonder how they blew out all those candles."

He knew of a few ninjustus that could easily have extinguished the candles, but Neji wanted to hope that ninjutsu had not been involved in the kidnapping at all. It would make things a great deal easier. Yet Neji found nothing to support his hope when he inspected some of the unlit candles.

At long last he returned to Artsuma Takeda. "I have a general idea of how they managed to carry out the kidnapping. There's no proof for or against the involvement of other ninja," Neji continued in a monotone. "The scene can be cleared now. And I'd like a copy of the guest list as well as a list of anyone who may be a competitor or enemy of yours. I'm going to get some rest and begin investigating in the town tomorrow unless you have any other suggestions."

* * *

A restless night of slumber did very little to improve Neji's temper. He impatiently ate a wholesome breakfast that the sympathetic service staff provided. Neji quickly checked in with Artsuma Takeda and saw to his security, all the while anxious to get out and be actively working. Much to his dismay, there was no copy of a guest list.

Soon every irritating and frivolous thing was taken care of and Neji was free to do the only thing that could possibly make him feel better. He blamed himself. Neji now realized that the strange busty woman who had knocked over Tenten's water glass was probably the one who had drugged her. He blamed himself for not being suspicious of the mysterious woman and even more for allowing Tenten to be separated from his side.

The town in which Artsuma Takeda lived was in no way extraordinary. Everything about it was exceedingly average from its size to its style of architecture. Neji found nothing of interest even when he wandered about the kinkier districts. With no other plan or lead he decided he might try accessing whatever criminal underworld existed.

This logical reasoning brought Neji to a seedy-looking bar called _The Red Monkey_. Neji felt a strange twinge of pain as he thought of what Tenten would say about the appellation. ("What? Freaking red monkeys? What is up with that crap?" Tenten was very opinionated about places that served alcohol, but usually didn't present any sort of persuasive argument on the matter.) Neji pushed aside such uncomfortable thoughts to ponder more important things, for example how was he to go about getting the information he sought.

Unfortunately, Neji did not think any further on this matter for as he entered _The Red Monkey_, he was met with a most peculiar sight. In a dark corner, almost unnoticeable were two people, one with very short hair and a macho frame and the other with long red hair and supple curves.

Neji felt something inside him snap. He strode up to the table and grabbed Shou by the collar, ignoring Kuma's screams. "I'm employed by your father," he snarled. "You two are going home. You can go quietly, but believe me, I'd much rather use force."

* * *

**Hey Everyone. Sorry it took me a bit longer than I expected to get this chapter out, but I had a lot of stuff to do this week, coupled with writer's block and La Corda D'Oro plot bunnies, that got me a bit behind in this story. But that's all behind me now and I'm back in the saddle so to speak. Anyway, hope you enjoyed Chapter 4 and 5 will definitely be up in my usual week. Please review.**


	5. Don't Look At Me Crosswise

_**Chapter Five: **_Don't Look At Me Crosswise

* * *

Tenten was unconscious for a long time before she woke up again. Her head ached considerably—the after-effects of the chemicals that had knocked her out—and her hands were tied together with a low quality rope that chafed her wrists. Upon opening her eyes, Tenten found herself completely alone in a plain room without any windows. She suspected it was a closet by the size and the light of a single naked bulb that dangled from the ceiling.

She had no way of knowing what time it was or if it was even the same night. Despite her chemical induced migraine, Tenten began thinking hard. It was only a matter of time before her kidnappers, whoever the hell they were, discovered she was awake. She was still disguised as Kuma and she had to decide quickly whether or not she was going to continue the ruse. And furthermore, she needed to decide the best way to act. Should she kick ass or lull them into a false sense of security?

In reality, it took Tenten very little time to come up with answers. She was feeling particularly vindictive, perhaps because of all the abuse she had undergone as of late. Tenten would continue to masquerade as Kuma and she would play the role of a frantic hostage… sort of. When the time was right and she had learned enough information, she would become deadly.

Tenten smirked and took a deep breath. Glass shatter and all animals within a ten mile radius fled as Tenten emitted the loudest most piercing scream she had ever unleashed upon the Earth.

"WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?"

The closet door slammed open, revealing a tall man with rather non-descript features, who was uttering various other and often worse obscenities. Tenten saw the snow white bandages wrapped around his middle and realized he was the man she had stabbed. To say that he appeared both very angry and disturbed would have been an extreme understatement.

Tenten artfully altered her appearance to one of sheer terror. "Who are you?" she screamed shrilly. "Where am I? What's going on?"

"Shut up, you damn bitch!" the wounded man yelled. "You're a captive!"

Tenten fell into hysterical sobs. "I want… _hic_… to go…_ hic_… home," she wailed.

Her captor swung his arm back and slapped her. Tenten was in ten percent shock-ninety percent acting as she fell silent. "That's better," he said, swaggering with his false idea of power. "As I said before, you're a captive. Not only that, you're the captive of a very dangerous man whom you do not want to cross—"

"There you go again, Ren, always assuming powerful figures are men. Maybe she's a woman. Nazuki wears a hood after all."

"He doesn't have _boobs_!"

"Maybes she's _flat-chested_!"

The woman arguing with Ren had pushed her way into the cramped closet—that became smaller as her bushy hair filled up a great deal of space—and jabbed a manicured finger into Ren's chest.

Annoyed with the way the conversation was headed away from all useful information, Tenten let out a distressed squeak to get their attention.

"Hey, what did you do to her?" the woman demanded.

"Oh, there you go again, Nonako! You're sympathizing with the captive!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

Tenten rolled her eyes. This wasn't helping. How long were these two going to argue? Tenten bit her lip. Would an outburst be in character here or would it give away her impatient scheming? Tenten made a decision, hoping it wasn't the wrong one. She drew a ragged breath and screamed, "I want to go home!"

"Dear God, woman! Shut up!" Ren yelled.

Nonako bit her lip. "Well… she does sound a bit brattish…" She disappeared, leaving Tenten alone with Ren again. He took a deep breath that painfully reminded Tenten of the way Neji looked when he was trying not to strangle someone. She wondered what he was doing now. Was he looking for her already? Or maybe he had been captured too… somehow she doubted that. He was probably looking for her, but then the real Kuma and Shou were likely more important. _Poor Neji_, she thought and turned her attention back to Ren who looked ready to speak. "Let me go," Tenten demanded, hoping her voice still held a small tone of hysteria, but her ability to be afraid was quickly fading.

"In good time," Ren said, now mysteriously calm. "You see, Nazuki-sama has big plans for you."

"Wh-what kind of plans?" _Damn, I could have been an actress_.

Ren smiled. "Even I don't know exactly. But Nazuki-sama is a genius. He had researched your bloodline and found an ancient power that flows in your veins. Even your family has no idea."

"What are you talking about?"

He laughed, sending shivers up and down Tenten's spine. She hated evil laughs, they were so unnerving. "Just be a good little hostage, my dear, and everything will turn out fine."

Tenten wiped her fake tears away on her shoulder as the door snapped shut and the key turned in the lock. "Hmm… this is some crazy shit going down," she moaned softly. Since when did airheads like Kuma get secret, unknown powers? She wondered if this was all complete crap or if there really was something special about Kuma.

She shook her head rapidly, trying to clear the large amount of thoughts that had gathered there. At least this seemed more like a problem she could settle with her fist, which was her preferred method of problem solving. What she really needed though was someone she could talk to, not to help her figure out what to do, since she was certainly very capable, but to help her sort the thoughts in her head by vocalization. Pen and paper might have sufficed, but she doubted Ren would just hand it over if she asked. Tenten sighed. "I need Lee or Neji… even Gai-sensei."

* * *

Artsuma Takeda was startled when Neji burst unceremoniously and completely without warning into his study with two less than happy people in tow who were most likely upset with the things he had been shouting at them for the last twenty or so minutes ("If you're going to elope at least leave town and do it properly!" "Do you have any idea what you've done?").

The very disgruntled Artsuma Takeda was about to begin his own slurry of shouting at Neji for causing a great deal of damage to a very expensive mahogany door until he recognized the couple the shinobi had brought with him.

"Shou… and Kuma too! You're alive! Thank the gods you've returned." The man grasped his son, breathing heavily.

"We didn't intend to come back," Shou said stiffly, pulling himself out of his father's clutching hands.

"Wh-what?"

"They eloped," Neji snarled. "I found them in a bar in the cheap end of town. I don't have time for your family argument. I need to find my comrade who was kidnapped pretending to be _your_ daughter-in-law," he shouted at Artsuma Takeda, wanting very much to kill every last Artsuma in the room.

Even Shou who had little respect for his father was left gaping by Neji's performance. "What on Earth possessed you to hire _that_ guy?"

"He was a good deal more polite before his girlfriend disappeared."

"SHE'S NOT MY GIRLFRIEND!" came Neji's angry shout from the hallway, annoyed that the Artsumas had not even waited until he was out of earshot before gossiping about him. Neji began cursing violently under his breath and when he realized why he was cursing so violently, he began to swear with even more vehemence (if that was at all possible).

Neji wasted a great deal of paper and ink trying to write another letter to the Hokage canceling his request for so many additional personnel. He would clearly no longer need another jounin and two teams of genin. His own "minions" as he liked to call them privately (a bad habit encouraged by Tenten when they went drinking with Lee) or Lee would suffice to get Tenten back from whoever had taken her thinking she was Artsuma Kuma.

A piled of crumpled, ripped, ink-stained paper littered the floor, but at least, Neji managed to compose a polite, neat letter without tearing holes in the paper with the pressure of his pen strokes.

With the letter headed straight for the Hokage, Neji went to see Artsuma Takeda, hoping that his own emotions had calmed down enough to converse with the man without tearing him limb from limb. The man was alone when Neji entered the study. The annoyed look Neji was getting did not bode well for the outcome of their meeting.

"I am very displeased with your treatment of my son and his wife," Artsuma Takeda said coldly.

"I could care less. They're back. That's what you asked for." Artsuma Takeda still looked vexed but could not argue with the young Hyuga man. "Speaking of Kuma and Shou," Neji said, trying to calm himself, "I would advise that they remain in hiding until I have recovered my comrade and eliminated this threat. I cannot be sure of what the kidnappers are after since they clearly have not contacted you. I do not want to find out what will happen if they discover Tenten is not Kuma."

Artsuma Takeda was reluctantly to speak politely to Neji after the way the shinobi had treated him, but quickly replied, "The story of your comrade has scared the two of them enough that they ought to be compliant."

"Good," Neji said. "I contacted the Hokage again to let her know the circumstances and request a smaller amount of additional aide. I can only guess at what your bill will be at the end of all this trouble." Neji took a deep steadying breath. "Do you need anything else?"

Artsuma Takeda shook his head.

"Then, if it is possible, I'd like to speak privately with Shou and Kuma."

"It'll have to wait until tomorrow. They're a bit… distraught."

Neji nodded and left. "Hell if I care," he whispered when he was out of the study.

* * *

Tenten's first major setback of her abduction was the growling pit in her abdomen that was her stomach. She was horribly, terribly, painfully, hungry. As much as Tenten disliked the idea of calling for the attention of her captors, the idea of slipping one of the weapons—that were still miraculously undiscovered—from her sash, cutting her bonds, popping as soldier pill hidden within her shoes, and hence revealing her true identity was not at all to her liking.

The reluctant kunoichi slid herself closer to the door and struck out at the wood with her foot which incidentally was covered in blisters from those impractical (except for hiding things) shoes she had worn on the evening of her kidnapping. "I'm hungry. Are you people going to feed me?" Tenten shouted.

A jumble of curses, oaths, and various other vulgarities and forms of swearing erupted on the other side of the door, causing Tenten to smile briefly in spite of herself. It certainly was amusing that she was giving them so much trouble. The door flung open. It was Ren as she full well expected. "A little princess, aren't you?" he sneered.

"Well, seeing as I don't have access to a kitchen or a grocery store or even something like an _apple_ tree…" Tenten replied snidely, figuring she could get away with it on account of hunger, which as every knows turns people into raging monsters, particularly when they aren't used to being hungry.

"You're lucky if you get fed at all!"

"Oh please. I'm not stupid. You need me for _something_. You're going to keep me alive until then anyway. Being locked in a closet gives you time to think about these things you know," Tenten concluded. If she was lucky, that last comment might just get her out of the cramped little closet. A little extra surveillance would certainly be a fair trade for the elbow room.

Ren snorted brutishly. "I hate it when women start to think."

"And I supposed that's why you fight with your… _co-worker_… all the time," Tenten replied snappily.

"Watch it," Ren growled, "or I won't bring you back any food."

Tenten rolled her eyes and he slammed the door shut. It was then that her body began to shiver and Tenten realized just how they had managed to kidnap her. Her body was recovering after being drugged and it was more than the chemicals that rendered her unconscious.

She started laughing and couldn't stop. Tears came to her eyes. Even when Ren returned with a scant offering of food and harsh demands as to what was so damn funny, she couldn't stop. He left, completely disgruntled with no comment except to solemnly declare that his master would be paying her a visit the next day.

Finally Tenten quieted down, still shivering and now wondering how she was supposed to eat without any hands. Perhaps something in her snapped, but she no longer cared whether they suspected she was not Kuma. No, Kuma was about to transform into a strong, sassy woman whether she liked it or not. "I'm afraid I have a terribly ego," she said to no one in particular. "I really must do something about that. Hey," she yelled, pounding on the door with her foot. "I need my hands to eat!"

* * *

**Author's Note: This is probably going to be a long one so please bear with me. First of all this chapter was probably the most difficult for me. There are a lot of things about it that I really like and a lot of things I don't like. In the end it is what it is and I only hope that I haven't disappointed my readers. Second of all, I want to let you guys know that updating could get a bit erratic, but I'll try not to. My mom is having some medical problems, so I've had to step up a lot lately and take care of the rest of my family and her. So it was really hard for me just to be in the mood to type this up today. I'm actually on the internet quite a bit though because it's sort of my refuge right now. Anyway, that's what's going on with me, but I'll try not to let it effect my update time. Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter and please leave a review if you've got a moment. **


	6. Wingman or Friends Are For

_**Chapter Six: **_Wingman or Friends Are For Distracting Masochists

* * *

Neji hadn't been sleeping well as was evident by the large purple bags that marred his generally _un_marred skin. Neji had always been on the stand-offish side of the personality spectrum, but now he was simply appalling. The majority of Artsuma Takeda's servants had learned to run screaming with terror upon the disgruntled shinobi's approach. Otherwise they would fall victim to his spasmodic shouting fits and unpleasant glares.

Part of Neji's problem was that he had no leads and, perhaps even more depress, part was that he was completely friendless. No one seemed concerned with his difficulties. Artsuma Takeda merely wanted to be sure that anyone who threatened his family wouldn't get away with it.

Lucky for Neji, his mood was about to lighten considerably, for early that morning, reinforcements arrived in the form of one Rock Lee. It was difficult for Artsuma Takeda to find a servant who wouldn't threaten to quit upon being asked to knock on Neji's door, but the man was persistent particularly because Lee made him feel incredibly uncomfortable.

* * *

Lee ignored Neji's usual requests to respect his personal space and embraced Neji when the shinobi arrived in Artsuma Takeda's study. The aforementioned client quickly and somewhat rudely excused himself from their presence and exited with most haste.

"Please let me go, Lee," Neji said tiredly. He was greatly relieved that Lee was finally there.

"Of course, my youthful comrade," Lee said loudly. "The esteemed Hokage regrets that she did not send your team along, but it seems that this mission is far more dangerous than even you know, my friend."

Neji blinked at him. "What does that mean?"

Lee's face took on a look of seriousness Neji had never seen before. He lowered his voice. "What I am about to tell you is S-rank classified. No one else can know, not even the Artsumas."

"Tenten?" Neji asked.

"When we find her, she may know," Lee replied. "It has to do with Lady Kuma and… Orochimaru."

Neji's blood ran cold. "You didn't just say what I thought you did. I need my ears cleaned or something, right?"

"No, my friend," Lee said gravely. "You heard me correctly. Do you know of Orochimaru's family history?"

"He was an orphan at a young age," Neji replied. "Any other relatives were from outside of the village, but the families were estranged. He had no one."

"Yes. Tsunade-sama informed me that before Orochimaru's death, the Research Department of ANBU was looking up his genealogical records and trying to find his existing relatives." Lee began pacing. "After we were certain of his demise, however, the research was essentially halted and used only as a training exercise for new trainees learning how to pick up and continue someone else's research."

"So the research continued, though slowly," Neji reasoned.

"Yes, and just recently, there was a breakthrough," Lee said.

"And?" Neji waited to her what he expected to come out of Lee's mouth. Only them would it be real.

"Although the connection is very, _very_ distant, Kuma is Orochimaru's last living relative."

"And his abilities," Neji said, "has she inherited any of them?"

"That is for us to investigate under Tsunade-sama's orders. Though the fire in which her parents died is something to be highly suspicious of," Lee added. "We have the authority to bring her to Konoha if she has powers that she cannot control."

"I was going to speak with Shou and Kuma today now that they've calmed down a bit," Neji said at last.

"Yes," Lee said, "but first tell me about how Tenten was kidnapped. Gai-sensei and I were most anxious when we were told and Gai-sensei was upset that Tsunade-sama would not permit him to come as well."

Neji nodded and began to narrate the tale, relieved to have an audience that cared properly and reacted the way he did. Lee was indignant and worried as Neji was which perhaps made him feel that he hadn't been overreacting all this time as a nagging little voice in his head had told him constantly.

"I don't have any leads. I should have still been able to find them with my Byukagan, but they disappeared without a trace." Neji sighed with frustration. "I don't know what I'll do if we don't get any leads from Shou and Kuma… probably kill someone," he added darkly.

"My friend, that kind of talk is very un-youthful," Lee said indignantly. "You must snap out of it. I don't want to hit you, but I will if I must!"

Neji looked at Lee, amazed at how serious he was. "Alright, I'm sorry. I'm just frustrated is all. It's been hell here."

"I do not wish to insult you by saying this, Neji," Lee began.

"But," Neji prompted impatiently.

"But perhaps it would be best if you let me do most of the questioning when we talk with Kuma and Shou."

"Why?"

"Well… from the description of how you brought them home," Lee said uncomfortably, "I suspect that they may not like you very much."

It took every ounce of Neji's composure not to scream, "I don't give a shit if they don't like me! Tenten's life is at stake!" But he didn't and that was what mattered. Painfully, he swallowed his Hyuga pride and said, "If you think that's best."

* * *

Kuma and Shou had certainly been dreading Neji's visit. They very reluctantly opened the door and allowed Lee and Neji to enter the room to which they had been confined. At Neji's urging Artsuma Takeda had kept their return as secret as possible in order to protect Tenten. They didn't think the kidnappers would take to kindly to her not being Kuma.

Neji sat down, annoyed that he seemed to have the only room in the entire mansion with uncomfortable chairs. "You don't mind if I sharpen my weapons while we talk?" Neji asked. "I've been so busy I haven't been taking care of the blades." Shou and Kuma actually did mind, but Neji didn't wait for their reply and pulled out a kunai and a whetstone, ignoring Lee's stern look.

"Actually," Neji said, holding up the kunai so they could see the number "10" engraved on the hilt, "this one isn't mine. It's Tenten's." At Shou's and Kuma's blank looks he added, "The girl who was kidnapped pretending to be you."

"Oh," Kuma said softly, almost inaudibly. Her dark eyes were mesmerized by the shinning blade.

"Would you like to see her picture?" Neji asked, his voice matching her softness.

Kuma nodded slight and watched Neji pull a glossy, but slightly torn photo out of his pocket. It had been taken a long time ago when they were still genin. Gai-sensei had insisted on having a photo of all four of them together. It had been the only time Neji had ever consented to having his picture taken. "That's her on the right," he said, pointing to Tenten. "She's a bit older now, but…" He trailed off.

"She's very pretty," Kuma said.

Neji sighed. "Yes, she is, isn't she?"

"Is that your father?" Shou asked Lee loudly. His male pride demanded that he be part of the conversation.

"No," Lee replied. "That is our mentor, Gai-sensei."

"I know you may not care about your father's business," Neji said, "but we have to find Tenten. That means figuring out who took her and why. We think you can help us."

"Will you answer our questions?" Lee continued as Neji faltered.

Shou and Kuma looked at each other. Shou may not have been terribly moved by Neji's heartfelt actions, but Kuma certainly was. Despite his flaws, Shou truly did love her and he could see the plea for compassion in her eyes. "We'll try," he said at last.

"First we want to hear your story," Lee said. "Why did the two of you elope without telling anyone?"

Shou came up with an answer first. "I imagine that at least you, Neji-san, have figured out what kind of man my father is." Neji nodded to show he did indeed understand and Shou continued, "It was my idea to leave. We ran away and got married in a town not too far from here. Kuma wanted to say goodbye to a few people here before we left forever, but you found us when we came back to do that. That's it really."

Neji was disappointed with the answer. "Lee, do you have any paper?" he asked suddenly.

Lee, who was in the secret (or perhaps not so secret) habit of occasionally writing very bad love poetry about Sakura, reluctantly surrendered the small pad of paper he kept with him at all times for such purposes. Neji masked his disgust as he turned to a black page and did his best to forget the few horrible phrases he had glimpsed ("with feel that balance delicately like a flamingo").

Neji was not an artist my any means, but he could produce a decent enough sketch that its subject was at least recognizable. He shoved the finished sketch of Orochimaru in front of Kuma and Shou. "Have either of you ever seen this man? Not necessarily any time recently either."

They shook their heads. Neji frowned. He had a feeling that Kuma wasn't going to say anything in front of Shou and he was desperate to believe that at least Kuma knew something. Imperceptibly, he nudged Lee with his elbow and made a small motion towards Shou.

Lee understood. "Shou-san, if you would please some with me, there are something things I'd like to talk with you about in private."

Shou looked over at his wife, clearly reluctant to leave her. "Don't worry," Neji told him. "I'll keep an eye on her while you're gone."

"This won't take long?" Shou asked Lee.

"Not at all," Lee replied cheerfully, wondering if he was lying.

Kuma looked at Neji, smiling nervously as Shou and Lee left, the latter quickly improvising to keep the former busy. Neji studied the newlywed for a moment. "Are you afraid of me?" he asked.

"A little," she admitted.

"You don't need to be," Neji told her. "I want you to know that I am on your side. I _will_ protect you. Do you understand, Kuma-san?" She nodded. "Now, tell me what you couldn't say in front of your husband."

Kuma blushed deeply. "I, well, we didn't just leave because of Shou's father," she blurted out. "We were running because they were after me."

"Who?"

"I—can I borrow that paper?" she asked. Neji handed her Lee's notebook and watched as she turned the page and began sketching furiously. A minute or so later, she had produced very realistic drawings of three people. One was a female with a very bushy head of hair, the other two were males, one very boring and non-descript in appearance and the other with a large amount of body art drawn on his face which pained Neji to look at.

"You had an… incident with these people?" Neji asked.

"About a week before Shou and I ran away, they tried to kidnap me in town. I managed to run away long enough to get to a crowded street, but I didn't think they were going to give up. Clearly they didn't. I knew they wanted me specifically. They said their leader needed me because I have some sort of power or something."

"That man I drew before," Neji said, "are you sure you've never seen him?"

"I'm positive. He's creepy-looking. I would remember."

Neji bit his lip, wondering if he should tell her, when a new idea occurred to him. He turned to a new page in Lee's notebook and began sketching again. This time it was a picture of Kabuto. "What about him?"

Kuma frowned. "I… I think so… I remember now. He was this strange man who kept asking me a lot of funny questions about—wait, do I have this weird power that people keep talking about?" She looked panicked and afraid.

"I don't know for sure, but recently, I've just found out that you're the long-lost relative of a former Konoha shinobi," Neji told her. There was no need to reveal the gory details. "You may just have a reserve of untapped chakra, which is the power that allows ninja to perform jutsus. Untapped chakra is extremely potent and grows more powerful the longer it is latent."

"So how do you know if I have this 'chakra' stuff?"

"My clan has a special ability called the Byukagan which allows me to see chakra circulatory systems," Neji said. "If I activate this ability, I should be able to find out."

"I want to know," Kuma said softly, "please."

Neji closed his eyes and stiffened. "Byukagan." Kuma flinched when she saw the veins around his eyes bulge outwards. Neji scanned her chakra circulatory system. The sheer force of her chakra astounded him. There was so much power there. No wonder people were after her. If she ever wanted to develop her potential it would be one hell of an exhausting release. If she wasn't determined enough, her chakra would probably consume and destroy her. _She might be better off just having it sealed_, he thought.

He let go of the Byukagan and his veins faded back. "Well?"

"You have a lot of chakra," Neji told her honestly. "More than I expected."

"Is that good or bad?" Kuma asked.

"It depends on a lot of factors. Whatever you decide to do with that chakra, you will have to come with me to Konoha." He saw her start to grow fearful. "Nothing bad will happen to you, I promise."

"Thank you."

"This matter will have to wait," he continued. "It's urgent that Lee and I find Tenten before something awful happens. If there's anything else you know, now is the time to tell me. Did they say anything about their leader?"

"They were having an argument about whether it was a boy or a girl. I didn't catch any names though."

"And where did they first attack you?"

Kuma told him the street names quickly. They could hear Lee talking loudly down the hall, returning with Shou. "If you think of anything else, let me know. Don't worry about your chakra. It was pretty dormant so most likely nothing will happen until we get you to Konoha."

"Thank you, Neji-san," Kuma said. "I hope you find Tenten-san soon."

* * *

**Author's Note: I'm hoping that I didn't end up making Kuma a complete Mary-Sue by the end of this chapter. I'm a bit worried about that, but I thought the plot twist was interesting and decided to go with my gut on this one. Anyway, I hope everyone liked this chapter. I wanted to get in one last good update before I head back to school tomorrow (ugh). But on the brightside that means it's back to random inspiration in the middle of math class when functions are boring, and Sonja and I will probably get back into our joint fic, That's What She Said. One more bit of advertising. I just got a Fiction Press account recently and have posted my first piece. You can find the link to my account in my profile, so if you're interested, please take a look. And one last final thing that's not advertising. I just wanted to thank everyone that reviewed and gave me their support about my mom and her medical troubles. I was having a particularly tough day last time I updated and things are definitely going to get better. But you guys were a really big boost for me when I was feeling a bit down and I wanted to thank you for that. And so I'll end this awfully long Author's Note before I do something stupid (happens). Please review.**


	7. Androgyny Hour: I Can't Tell!

_**Chapter Seven: **_Androgyny Hour: I Can't Tell!

* * *

When Tenten woke up, despite being uncomfortably situated in a smelly old closet, she felt excited. The infamous Nazuki-sama was supposed to pay her a visit today, which would hopefully give her the last of the information she desired. And perhaps she could figure out the gender of the androgynous character who was Ren's and Nonako's "fearless leader."

Yesterday, Tenten had met the third occupant of the small building that she was being held in during on of her bathroom breaks. They were careful to keep her away from the windows as they pushed her down the hall, but Tenten couldn't fail to see that there were a great deal of trees outside. But noticing these details had been superseded by the large man sitting on a worn sofa, reading Gods knew what sort of book.

When she had called a friendly greeting to the heavily tattooed man, he had brutishly told her to "shove it." Nonako had then quietly told her not to talk to him because, "Tomui doesn't like strangers." This led Tenten to believe that Tomui, as he was called, was probably a bit slow and used mostly for his strength.

Tenten had thus in only about twenty-four hours of consciousness gathered the following information about her present circumstances: Her kidnappers intended to use "Kuma" for some sort of evil purpose; she was imprisoned in a building that was, if not completely entrenched in forest, isolated; Ren and Nonako could easily be led into a distracting argument; and Nazuki, whichever gender the leader claimed, would be a formidable enemy if he-she could pull off such complicated kidnappings. She had learned a few other things as well, but these facts seemed to be the most important to her.

She did not have very long to wait for the very punctual Nazuki-sama. Tenten had eaten and been allowed to use the bathroom. She had hardly been staring at the wall for five minutes when the door of the closet opened revealing a heavily shrouded stranger.

_So this is the all-powerful Nazuki-sama_, Tenten thought, taking in the sight of the rather tall figure, draped artfully in a long black cloak and apparently any other black garment Nazuki could get his-her androgynous hands on. Tenten resisted the urge to say something ridiculously stupid like, "Haven't you heard, green is the new black?" She was glad she didn't say anything, because looking up at Nazuki's shadowed face—the only feature of which she could really distinguish was a pair of glittering dark eyes—she could tell that this "fearless leader" wouldn't be the sort of person Kuma would stand up to even on her best day. At least not right away.

"I trust you are comfortable, Kuma," Nazuki said.

Tenten cringed at the flutey sounding voice. It was the weirdest thing she had ever heard and certainly offered no clues to Nazuki's gender. "Not really," Tenten replied.

Nazuki laughed, sending a new sensation of unpleasantness up Tenten's spine. "They never told me about this frank honesty of yours. But I suppose you never really know someone until they're desperate. Are you desperate, Kuma?"

"Not at all," Tenten replied weakly. "Shou will come save me and make all of you pay."

"How endearing," Nazuki said. "Your faith is touching. Like a romance film. Only this is real life, Kuma. There are no fairy tales in the real world."

"I know that," Tenten said. Boy did she ever.

"So then you should prepare yourself because you are about to become very desperate, my dear."

_Get to the good stuff_, Tenten thought. _I'm sick of the mind games you think I'm playing_. "Consider me prepared," Tenten said icily.

"Spunky too," Nazuki mused. "I suppose by now you've been told that you have a hidden power within you. Do you have any idea what it could be?"

Tenten shook her head.

"It's called 'chakra.' It's a power that ninjas use in their special attacks."

"I'm not a ninja," Tenten interrupted.

"No, but your ancestors were." Tenten gaped, her shock utterly genuine. If what Nazuki said was true, then Kuma would have enormous amounts of latent chakra within her. Latent chakra, of course, was more potent than active chakra, especially if it was dormant for such a long time. It was no big deal for a ninja child to release their chakra for the first time because they were so young, but if Kuma had enough chakra in her system it just might kill her if she wasn't handled properly.

Tenten masked the extent of her fears as Nazuki continued to speak. Kuma wouldn't know anything about chakra after all. "This chakra has been dormant within you for a long time, making it very powerful." So he understood, almost. "I can harness this energy and use it."

"Use it for what?" Tenten breathed. _What is this bastard trying to do?_

"Now why would I tell you_ all_ of my plans? All you need to do is provide me with the power to realize my goals."

"Will I… die?" Tenten asked, complimenting herself on her acting.

"That depends on your will to live," Nazuki replied ominously.

_Dirty liar_, Tenten thought. _This sort of chakra extraction would absolutely kill her_. She thanked the Gods that her chakra, since it was active, could not be tapped against her will. The only problem would be when the extraction failed and Nazuki realized that she was not Kuma at all.

Tenten idly wondered if Neji had figured out as much as she had, but those thought quickly became painful and she shoved them away. She could remember vividly the last conversation she had with Neji. He had been about to kiss her—and that was a wonderful experience—and she had stopped him. _Is he suffering or relieved that I'm gone?_ she wondered.

"Well, this has been fun," Nazuki said, interrupting Tenten's thoughts with that horrifying voice again. "Is there anything I could get you to make you more comfortable?"

Tenten paused. "If I could get a new change of clothes? This dress is meant to fit a woman half my size." She was still wearing that horrible dress from the night of her abduction.

Nazuki left without a word, leaving Tenten wondering if she really was going to get a change of clothes.

* * *

"In the end, it looks like the happy couple will get what they want," Neji told Lee in the privacy of the room Artsuma Takeda had _graciously_, or perhaps reluctantly, allotted for their own use. "They've got a one-way ticket to Konoha from the looks of things."

Lee nodded in agreement. "By the Gods," Neji continued, "I never expected to find so much chakra in her."

"Neji my friend, do you suspect that whoever is after Kuma knows how much chakra she really has?"

"I don't know," Neji admitted. "Even a smaller amount of untapped chakra would give whoever it is a lot of power. It's clear that the kidnapper understands the nature of dormant chakra. That's likely the goal rather than any particular amount of it."

"Then why not target a ninja child?" Lee asked.

Neji laughed. "Don't you realize how impossible that would be? It would be easier to find someone like Kuma and for the most part her disappearance would go unnoticed by comparison."

Lee nodded again.

"Anyway, this talk isn't getting us any closer to Tenten," Neji said. "We've got the sketches. We should start looking for those people."

"So fewer sheets to write on," Lee sighed, mourning the loss of his poetry paper.

"It's a good thing, Lee. In more ways than one," he added softly to himself.

"Did you set up the proper precautions for Kuma?" Lee asked.

"Yes. I've got every protective seal I know on that room," Neji said. "And Artsuma's got half his body guards up there."

"Then let us go, my friend! To rescue Tenten!"

"To rescue Tenten," Neji echoed softly.

* * *

To her astonishment, a few hours after the androgynous Nazuki left her, Nonako entered Tenten's closet bearing a few garments of the loose-fitting variety. Tenten could not contain her grin as Nonako undid her bonds and stood watch as Tenten changed. It was an interesting process for all the while Tenten had to conceal all the weapons that had been hidden on her person.

For the most part, her blades were hidden in the folds of her sash which remained out of sight as long as Tenten titled the fabric in a certain direction and let it fold the right way as she placed it on the ground. The more creative task was keeping the kunai strapped to her leg out of sight. The remedy though turned out to be very simple. If she just put on the pants Nonako had given her without take the dress off first, all would be well.

Nonako quirked an eyebrow at the strange behavior though. Luckily, Tenten came up with a quick excuse. "I have horrible stretch marks. My hips grew wider really fast when I was a teenager."

Sympathy registered on Nonako's face. "Ah, I know how it is. They'll fade eventually and lotion helps."

"Oh, wow. I hadn't thought of that," Tenten gushed. "Thank you." She quickly tore off the dress, realizing that when it was off, her breathing improved immensely. "Ah." Careful to keep up the image she began with the deliberate folding of her sash, Tenten reluctantly treated the dress in a similar fashion. And so she could keep her sash of joy and wonder, Tenten added it to her ensemble which admittedly reintroduced her curves that had been lost in the shapeless tunic.

"Could you please pass my thanks along to Nazuki-sama?" Tenten asked, holding out her hands to Nonako to bind again.

Nonako nodded. "Ren ought to be bringing you a meal soon."

* * *

The _Red Monkey_ hadn't been the only seedy bar in town and considering the way Neji had made a scene in the previous drinking establishment, he and Lee selected a larger club to go hunting for information. Neji hesitated outside the entrance, glancing at his spandexed friend. "Um, Lee, don't take this the wrong way, but I think you should wait outside."

"Ah, I see," Lee replied exuberantly. "You want me to stand guard! You can count on me, Neji!"

"Yes, let's go with that."

"Huh?"

"Never mind. Just wait here for me. This shouldn't take long." Neji walked in before he began to feel guilty. He certainly didn't look as out of place as Lee would have. Neji hadn't exactly been taking the best care of himself as of late. His hair was somewhat unkempt and a layer of stubble had grown over his once smooth chin. Overall, he looked a bit rumpled. Yes, he blended in quite nicely indeed.

He approached the bar at a leisurely pace and took a seat at the end. "What can I get you?" the barman asked gruffly.

"Sake is fine," Neji replied. "More importantly," he continued, watching the barman pour out the alcohol, "I'm looking for information."

"Information?" the man echoed quirking a brow. "Then you've come to the right place."

Neji pulled out Kuma's sketched and placed them carefully on the bar. "Can you tell me anything about any of these three people?"

The barman studied the papers carefully. "I can tell you who will know," he said at last.

"Who?"

"I've got a friend who owns a bar, _The Lantern_, in a town called Onashi about twenty miles west of here. Says every week these thugs who sound a bit like these fellas' come in and get completely trashed. Ask for Nagano and tell him Muzichiro sent you. He'll tell you everything you need to know."

Neji downed his sake and, placing a considerable sum of money of the bar, left, uttering a quick, "Thank you," as he went.

He found Lee standing alert as ever by the door. "Come on, Lee. We're going to Onashi. If we leave now we should get there by nightfall."

"Shouldn't we tell Artsuma Takeda?" Lee asked, running to catch up to Neji's swift pace.

"I don't give a shit about the man," Neji replied. "They're safe for now anyway. I'm not their babysitter."

"Yes, but still—"

"Let's go," Neji said impatiently.

"Neji," Lee argued loudly. "When we find Tenten, she will want her scrolls and weapons which are currently located at the Artsuma mansion!"

"Oh," Neji said stupidly. "Right."

"So we'll stop back for a few minutes," Lee said. He paused a moment, a look of worry written across his expressive face. "Neji, are you alright?"

"No. And I was worse before you got here and we started getting leads. I'll be better when we find Tenten." Neji stopped to take a breath, wondering if he should continue.

But Lee chose to speak, cutting off Neji's brief impulse. "Okay. We _will_ find her."

"I know. I just need to see her is all," Neji said so softly that Lee didn't hear him as they turned down the hilly path that led up to the Artsuma mansion.

* * *

**Author's Note: Hey, Everyone. Sorry it took me almost an extra week to get this chapter out. I had a freak out moment earlier when I ought to have been posting this, but then I realized that there's another month between September and November. It's called October. Yay October. So anyway, you have my deepest, most humble apologizes for the extra-long wait, and I hope this chapter makes up for it. I'll try to stick to my standard week for Chapter Eight. Please review. **


	8. Shockulating

_**Chapter Eight: **_Shockulating

* * *

The road provided Neji a variety of emotions and feelings, some of comfort and some of pain. In ways, leaving the Artsuma mansion felt as if he were running away from his problems and his pain, which was a blessing and a curse in it of itself. Neji was constantly reminding himself that their destination, Onashi, held further clues to Tenten's kidnappers, her whereabouts, and perhaps even Tenten herself.

Neji looked at Lee who was running beside him. He was still a bit angry with his friend, who when they were packing for the trip had dumped a bucket of water on his head and forced him to take the time to shave the stubbly beard that had been growing on his face.

All threats of hygiene aside, Lee's arrival and continued presence at Neji's side was probably the only thing that prevented Neji's bad mood from turning into an outright killing spree reminiscent of the Uchiha massacre.

The hard-packed dirt road felt good under his feet. Each step was a step closer to Tenten. With the goal so close, Neji finally began to wonder what exactly would happen when he found Tenten. Embarrassing memories of how he let his emotions get the better of him and her humiliating rejection flashed through his head. An unwanted blush crept into his pale cheeks and his brows knitted angrily. He would do better this time, he promised himself. He would control himself and most importantly, he would apologize.

And yet, with such strong resolve in mind, he could not stop his mind from wandering and playing out cheesy fantasies in which Tenten ran into his arms, they got married, and had a "crap-load" of mini-Nejis and mini-Tentens. _Someone slap me_, Neji thought miserably, realizing with a pang that if Tenten was there, she would have "jokingly" complied with that desire of his.

* * *

Sleeping had quickly become a difficult task for Tenten. It was extremely difficult to attempt the feat in the cramped confines of her closest which did not enable her to assume anything resembling a comfortable position. Tenten's discomfort was further advanced by the rope which bound her hands awkwardly in front of her. Even worse was that Ren, Nonako, and Tomui had only very reluctantly after much hysteria provided her with a shabby excuse for a blanket to keep back the cold.

As a result of these combined conditions, Tenten's slumber was restless and disjointed. She dozed in short bursts through the night and through the day considering that there was little else to do after she discovered that she wasn't learning anything useful by pressing her ear to the door and listening to Ren's and Nonako's arguments.

Tenten's dreams were also of a disjointed, sporadic, and often confusing nature. She could comprehend little of such dreams…

_The crisp air of fall hung over Konoha like a gauzy veil. Bright eyes caught the sun from every direction from within the safely guarded walls of the Leaf Ninja Academy which with the turning of the seasons had flooded with students, some new, some old, once again. _

_Tenten was beginning her second year in the Academy and to mark the occasion, she had persuaded her older sister to arrange her hair in twin buns that forever after would become her trademark style. The classes and many of the students were new to her and the day passed in the blissful awe of new experiences until lunch. _

_Admittedly, Tenten was rather lonely. All her friends from the previous year had been switched to another class and no one seemed to show any interest in her at all. Determined to change all that, Tenten set her sights on a black-haired girl laughing with a few other kids in the lunch yard. She decided that this girl was going to be her friend this year. It would be great._

_She ignored the groups of boys she passed. All they ever did was compare the size of their biceps and grunt. Such boys with no common sense were not suitable friend material. Tenten was feeling nervous now, standing so close to the girl, especially when the girl gave her a weird look._

"_Um, hi, I'm Tenten," she said brightly. "Can I eat lunch with you?"_

_The mystery girl looked her up and down. "Why would I let someone who looks like an underfed panda bear eat lunch with me?" she replied snidely. _

"_What?"_

"_I said you look like an underfed panda bear. Seriously, is your hair supposed to be a joke?"_

_Tenten felt the color rise in her cheeks, but anger felt more important than embarrassment. "So," she said, eerily calm, "am I to understand that you're making fun of my hair?"_

"_Oh, so you finally understood? Wow, you're slower that I thought."_

_A small crowd had gathered around Tenten and this girl whose name she didn't even know. One extremely long-haired boy with pale eyes pushed his way to the front. Tenten vaguely remembered from role call that he was from the Hyuga Clan. He was supposed to be the best in class or something like that, but that didn't matter. What mattered was that he was interrupting her in the process of getting revenge._

"_Is there a problem here?" he asked nosily. _

"_Not at all," Tenten said brightly. She took a pair of kunai out of her pocket, enjoying the way the girl's eyes popped in fear. And she was going to be a kunoichi? How sad. "You see, this girl has a problem with my hair, so we're just going to settle it right now with a little blood loss, or maybe some SEVERE BLEEDING!" she shouted, adding a morbid laugh. "GO ON BACK TO LUNCH!"_

_The Hyuga boy sighed. "Your hair is fine and you don't need to kill this stupid girl to prove it."_

_Tenten turned toward him. "Huh?"_

_He shook his head and walked away, muttering, "Girls."_

"_Hey, what's that supposed to mean? Wait up! Where are you going? Don't run away from me!"_

* * *

_Tenten was sitting in what looked to be a waiting room. For the life of her she could not even begin to figure out where she might be though she had a feeling that someone was going to show up and perhaps tell her rather soon. _

_A tall figure with a curious mustache was walking towards her from down a long hallway. When he got close, she realized that the mustached stranger was in fact none other that Hyuga Neji._

"_Neji," she called, "what the hell is up with the lip fur?"_

"_Lee's eyebrows invaded my face," he replied._

"_Oh," Tenten said, wondering why she hadn't realized it before. "Of course."_

_She felt warm. Maybe it was the blankets. Maybe it was the pair of arms she hadn't yet identified wrapped around her. Maybe it was the hot breath of her neck. It was nice. _

"_Tenten," a familiar voice whispered in her ear._

_Now she knew who the mystery arms belonged to. Tenten rolled over to see Neji lying next to her. "I miss you," he said._

"_I miss you too," she said. The look in his eyes frightened her. It was the look of a man hopelessly in love. She knew because that was the way her father looked at her mother and they were the most successful couple she knew of. "N-Neji," she breathed, trying to control her fear of his eyes and the promises they made without words. _

_Neji kissed her, trailing his fingers tantalizingly down her cheek and neck to her collar bone. "Yes?" he asked finally after he was done sending waves of delight through her body._

_Tenten was breathless. "What are you doing to me?" she accused. _

"_What I've always wanted," he said huskily, making her melt in ways that were completely unfair. His hand slid down the curve of her waist to her hip. "And what you've always wanted," Neji added, planting another kiss on her forehead._

"_This is like a cheesy romance novel," Tenten moaned, giving up on having any kind of normal sensations. "And it's not even real."_

"_Yes," Neji said, "but girls don't complain so much in cheesy romance novels."_

"_How would _you_ know, Neji?"_

"_Shhh," he whispered. "I want you_ now_."_

"_Fine."_

No, Tenten's dreams were terribly confusing, disappointing, and just plain bizarre. She could not make heads or tails of them knew only that they seemed to carry one common thread: They were all about Neji.

**

* * *

**_The Lantern_ was not a bar that disappointed if you wanted a place that smelled blatantly of sweat and alcohol. Neji did not bother with asking Lee to "keep watch" as they entered with the evening rush of working men. He just would have to make sure Lee did not consume any alcohol. It was all fun and games ("youthful hijinx" as Lee called it) back home in Konoha, but abroad and more importantly on a mission, Neji needed to keep Lee sober.

Before Lee could even respond to the barman's casual inquiry as to what they wanted, Neji replied, "Sake for me, water for him."

"Neji, my friend, that's not fair!"

"Say that again when you can actually hold your liquor and I might reconsider," Neji replied without mercy. Lee sniffed but made no reply.

When the bartender returned, Neji said, "I'm looking for Nagano."

"That would be me," the man said guardedly.

"Muzichiro sent me," Neji continued.

The man relaxed visibly. "Oh. What can I do for you?"

"We're looking for information on these three people," Neji said, puling out the sketches and moving his sake glass, which Lee had been eying. _Alcoholic_, Neji thought.

"Ah, them," Nagano said, a pained look entering his countenance. "They come in here every week, pick fights, and only pay half their tab. Are you after them?"

"In a sense," Neji replied evasively. "Is there anything else you can tell me about them?"

"Yeah, sure. Their names are Nonako, Ren, and Tomui. They work for this really eccentric fella' called Nazuki. They're a bunch of thugs and the scourge of the town," Nagano said angrily.

"Where can I find them?"

"No one really knows where they operate from, but they come in the same night every week. Day after next."

Neji smiled, barely. "Thank you for all the help. We'll be back in two days," he said, paying their bill quickly.

"If you need a place to stay, there's a good inn down the road," Nagano said. "Mention my name and they'll give you a discount."

Kind as the offer was, Neji and Lee chose not to accept it. They didn't want word of them to spread and ruin their chances of catching the minions who had kidnapped Tenten. They selected an inn that was a bit farther down the road than the one Nagano had suggested.

Lee fell asleep first and Neji lay awake for a long time, listening to his friend's snores and thinking. All in all, Neji felt far better than he had felt the previous day. Tenten felt so close. He didn't even try to resist his dreams of her. There was nothing his tired mind could do.

* * *

Neji was awakened the next day far earlier and noisier than he would have liked, but shouting "yosh" at five-thirty in the morning was Lee's way and nothing could be done about it (Well, nothing but shouting, which didn't faze the spandex warrior, and throwing things, which had a result similar to the shouting).

Feeling annoyed and disgruntled, Neji abandoned Lee before he did something he would regret. He instructed Lee to stay in their room while he went out and "scouted the terrain." In a way, the scouting story was true. Neji needed to have a good sense of their surroundings if he was going to successfully pursue Tenten's kidnappers.

And that was how Neji found himself strolling the streets of Onashi with nothing to do in particular except to try and calm himself again. How bothersome.

"Hey, you!"

Neji walked onward, assuming the shout was for someone else. "You with the long hair!" Neji turned around, annoyed and highly vexed.

"What?"

"Aren't you the shinobi from Konoha to protect the shipment?" the shouter, a portly, middle-aged man in grease-stained clothes, asked.

"Different shinobi," Neji told him. "Shipment of what?"

"Metal that amplifies chakra," the man replied. "The last few shipments got swiped so the Hokage was going to send out an escort." Neji nodded remembering one of the other ninjas he worked with frequently complaining about how one of his weapons hadn't been fixed yet because of the shortage of the metal in question. Neji had said something snide about not breaking your weapons in the first place in reply which had immediately ended the conversation.

"I'm sure the escort will show up soon," Neji replied and left. He didn't care much for missing shipments of metal. He never used the stuff himself. It was useful for ninja with less chakra to spare because it made the chakra they did have more potent. It was also useful when a ninja completely lost control of their chakra, which though rare, could happen in extreme situations. The metal proved to be a good medium for capturing and controlling the overwhelming chakra in such an instance.

Neji forgot all about the metal when his stomach growled pointedly and he set out for lunch.

* * *

**Author's Note: Hello, all. I hope you enjoyed the latest chapter. Just a heads up, you've two, maybe three more chapters left before this fic is finished, so it'll be wrapping up very soon. On a sentimental note, a big thank-you to everyone who has been reading every chapter and an especially big thank-you to those of you who review consistently. I love your support. On a small advertising spot, my friend Sonja and I are back with our humor fic, "That's What She Said," so if you've read it before, it's being updated again (though slowly because we have lives) and if you haven't read it before, I encourage you to read it (especially if you like my humor cause this is even better). You can find it in my favorites. We write under the co-penname Tragedy of Madnes. Okay, so I'm going to stop now. Thanks for reading and please leave a review!**


	9. Tin Foil

**I rarely do dedications, but for everyone who waited far longer than they should have for this chapter, this is for you. I'm sorry I let you down and thanks for giving me the chance to make it up to you.**

_**Chapter Nine:**_ Tin Foil

As far as Tenten could tell using her questionable counting skills (which were only questionable due to the gaps she had in memory from the stressful lifestyle) it was the fifth or sixth day since she had been captured. To put it simply, she was immensely bored and annoyed with the whole affair. So far she hadn't been serving any dark or mysterious purposes. Tenten spent her days in a smelly old closet, that though vexing was far from sinister.

Ren entered noisily, carrying her breakfast with an evident lack of concern for spilling. "And how are we this morning?" he asked snidely.

He wasn't expecting an answer and normally Tenten would not have given one, but she was feeling exceptionally bitter. "Bored as hell," she shot back. "Can't I get a book or something?"

"Icha Icha?" he asked, pulling a novel from his pocket that looked vaguely familiar. She couldn't quite place where she had seen it before.

Tenten groaned finally realizing what it was that Ren was holding. "I'll pass," she replied. Tenten wasn't that bored.

"Your loss," Ren sang out and slammed the closet door shut.

"Not really," she said to the door. And so Tenten was left to entertain herself with her own thoughts. She quickly found that the easiest, most comfortable thing to think about was Neji. Thus she leaned back and immersed herself in fantasies in which Neji came to the rescue and kicked some major ass (she liked watching him kick major ass).

It occurred to her once or twice that she ought to just break out, but she doubted that she could take down Nazuki without back up and if she didn't subdue Nazuki, then the real Kuma, wherever she was—Tenten hadn't thought much more on that subject—would be in immense danger.

Tenten knew that eventually Neji would track her down and until he did, she could wait even though her patience was wearing terribly thin.

She was twiddling her thumbs (a very difficult task to accomplish with her hands bound in harsh ropes) absently when a large disturbance occurred outside her closet door.

"I don't give a shit! We've been guarding her sorry ass all week and I need a fucking drink!"

Tenten arched an amused eyebrow as she listened to Ren continue to sputter, shout gibberish, and utter various other scandalizing obscenities. She sincerely wished she could witness the event with her own eyes. From what she could gather, her three guards typically went out drinking every week and they were now arguing about which one of them would stay behind. In the end it was Tomui, for which Tenten was grateful. Ren or Nonako would have been unbearable in their righteous fury.

Tomui was silent. He did not utter a single word when he brought her food. By the general warnings and whispered stories she barely overheard, Tenten decided it was best not to push her luck with the man, especially when she was the one tied up and trapped in a closet. Her evening would thus be excessively dull without even the antics of her captors to amuse her at times.

She lost herself in fantasy and dozed off, dreaming of spandex, rescues, and ass-kicking.

* * *

Neji put Lee on a legitimate guard duty outside _The Lantern_. It was his job to watch for what Nagano the bartender had called "the scourge of Onashi." Neji was to wait for them in the bar and observe them closely. When they left, Lee would follow and Neji would catch up later to avoid suspicion. Bing, bang, boom, they find the hideout, lay down the law, and bring Tenten home. End of story.

"Where do you think is best to wait?" Lee asked.

Neji scanned the area surrounding the bar. Admittedly it was pretty sparse on hiding places. There were no convenient alleyways full of crates and dumpsters to disappear into. "The roof perhaps?"

Lee nodded.

"This will all be over soon," Neji said, mostly to himself, and, breathing deeply, he entered the bar glad that he looked a little scruffy once more since Lee hadn't attempted to force Neji to shave again. Knowing all too well what Neji was up to, the bartender did not show any sign of ever having seen Neji before.

"What'll it be?" Nagano asked.

"Whatever the local ale is," Neji replied, deciding to expand his taste buds as he waited. There was no sign of Tenten's captors anywhere. It was most likely going to be a very long night. He settled into a corner and soon became involved in a game of cards with two day laborers and an old woman.

His mind was far away from cards, focused more so on the door than anything else. Still, he paid enough attention to win a few rounds and keep himself in the game. When all else failed he relied on the few methods of cheating Tenten had taught him several years ago (only after making him promise not to tell Lee or Gai-sensei who would have been appalled by the dishonest and simply unladylike behavior of their comrade). Cards were a very good cover.

The old woman was in the middle of telling a joke of some sort when there was a disturbance by the door. A shouting couple entered the bar and the previous babble of noise seemed like silence compared to the clamor the pair brought with them. A few customers left right then and there. Neji understood why Nagano despised them so much.

Neji recognized them instantly, but it was his turn to lay a card down on the table. He laughed with the others at a joke he had not heard and put down the queen of hearts. Neji had forgotten the kidnappers' names, though Nagano had told him only a few days ago. He quickly relearned them, however—Ren and Nonako.

One of the day laborers eyed Ren and Nonako (who had yet to cease arguing even with the distraction of hard liquor) nervously. "Sorry, folks. I think I ought to head home."

"I'll go too," the other man said, leaving Neji alone to play another few hands with the old woman until she too excused herself complaining of stiff joints and an equally old cat named Mr. Whiskers that needed feeding.

Neji settled himself comfortably in his chair and watched Ren and Nonako out of the corner of his eye, all the while trying not to be too disgusted by their classless behavior towards each other and those around them. Not to mention they were responsible for all of Neji's pain. It took every ounce of his rational being not to simply rise from his seat and descend upon them with all his wrath and fury.

Every now and then, Neji had to bite his tongue to stay awake. He had never been a big fan of coffee or other caffeinated beverages and biting aforementioned tongue, though not ideal, was a pretty unobtrusive way of keeping himself awake through the tedium of waiting for Ren and Nonako to finish their last round of beers and call it a night.

When they finally did choose to do just that, the bar was nearly empty. The two exited, arm in arm and certainly in a much better mood than that which they had arrived. Neji had been almost certain on numerous occasions that they were about to violate all rules of common decency and perform various unthinkable acts in public. To his relief, they seemed content to giggle and stagger around together.

Neji waited a full five minutes and then without a word he got up and left, entering the late night-early dawn air. He breathed deeply, allowing the chill sensation to engulf him. Neji closed his eyes and extended his senses. He could feel Lee's presence tugging at him from several miles to the southwest in the general direction of a large wooded area that stretched on for hundreds of thousands of miles beyond the Fire Country's borders with very little interruption.

Without any fuss or delay, Neji simply turned to the southwest and took off after Lee and the two idiots they were tracking.

* * *

Tenten's evening was so unbearably dull that several times she honestly considered cutting herself loose to wreak havoc on the unsuspecting Tomui. Though the idea seemed fun, Tenten's voice of reason, whom she had long ago decided to name "Inner Neji" (because apparently everybody had an "Inner Neji") told her to wait. For while she was completely and utter bored to tears there was also something in the air she could not quite describe. Something was going to happen. She just couldn't say what exactly.

She was just beginning to think that taking a nap would be the most interesting thing she could do when she heard a loud crash from outside the closet in the general direction where she supposed there was a hallway of some sort that led to the main entrance. Tenten recognized the noise as that of splintering wood. Shouts of alarm followed afterward, convincing Tenten that the ruckus was more than just Ren and Nonako stumbling home completely trashed after a night of boozing.

"Inner Neji" told her to wait for one more sign of trouble before executing the dangerous and destructive plan that Tenten was already formulating.

"Die, fuckers!" came a shout that was unmistakably from Ren.

"Ha!" Tenten gloated in triumph over "Inner Neji." She twisted her hands, plucking a shuriken from within the folds of her sash and rotating the blade so that she could grab it in her teeth. She began sawing at her bonds vehemently, grateful that she had thought to practice this particular skill in her youth.

Tenten tried to ignore the shouts and minor explosions coming from outside. The first time she had paid attention to them, she had nicked her tongue on her shuriken and almost dropped the blade in surprise. No, she had to do her best to ignore Ren's violent cursing.

At the exact moment that Tenten had cut her last rope away, the closet door burst open. Standing there in the door frame was the last man she had expected to see.

She gaped at him. "Lee?"

"Is that you, Tenten?" he asked.

Tenten was confused for a moment, then remembered she was still disguised as Kuma. For the first time in a week, Tenten took her natural form. Relief washed over her as she leapt up to embrace Lee. It was good to be herself again. It was good to have someone familiar around.

"You have no idea how happy I am to see you," she told Lee, stepping back from him. "Where's Neji?"

"Still fighting youthfully!" Lee declared. "Come. We must assist!"

Tenten felt her stomach drop as Lee all but dragged her from the closet. Her limbs were slightly weak from lack of movement or maybe it was seeing Neji less than ten feet away from her plugging up every last one of Tomui's chakra points. Ren and Nonako lay in an exhausted drunken mass in the corner of the room.

Tomui swayed and staggered. Neji pulled his arm back; a blade glinted in the feeble light of a tired old lamp and the moonlight. Tenten realized what he was about to do.

"Wait!" she shouted. Neji looked up and locked eyes with her. Her heart skipped. "We need him for information. These idiots were just pawns."

Neji put his kunai away and stood up straight. "Lee, secure him," he said quietly. He walked over to Tenten as Lee scrambled to fix ropes around Tomui's wrists. Tenten appreciated the irony.

They stared at each other for a moment, unsure of what to say until Tenten finally broke the silence with, "Took you long enough."

Neji smiled in spite of himself. "Well, you know, had to find the couple who eloped first."

"You're kidding me? I was right?"

"Happens."

"Oh, don't you give me that! I'm gone for a week and look at you! You're a mess. What the hell is that growing on your face?"

"Sorry to interrupt, my youthful comrades," Lee said, "but this man is ready to be questioned."

Their attention snapped back to reality and the idiotic grins that had been spreading across Neji's and Tenten's faces quickly faded. Briefly as possible, Tenten narrated her version of events since her kidnapping (earning the appropriate angered responses from her comrades when it was completely necessary, of course) and discovered that Neji and Lee knew more that she did about the chakra within Kuma.

"He's not going to talk easily," Tenten said with a sigh. "If only Ren or Nonako were conscious. They're plastered. The job's half done."

"Lazy," Neji muttered.

"Practical," Tenten countered.

"Hn."

* * *

**Author's Note: As I mentioned before, it took me far too long to get this chapter out and I'm sorry. Time got away from me and I've been spending more time reading than writing lately. Seriously I've gone through so many books in the last three weeks. Anyway, I just want to thank everyone that waited patiently for this chapter and I hope it wasn't a disppointment. So there will be either one of two more chapters left depending on how long the next one starts to get I may divide it, we'll see, but this story is coming to a close. I know you're protesting, but I won't write a neverending story again. I've done that before. Finally I want to attribute my chapter title idea to my English teacher. It was unwitting on his part I suppose but nonetheless inspired the title. So sorry's and thank-you's once more. Please review. **

* * *


	10. Closure

_**Chapter Ten: **_Closure

Lightning flickered outside the window followed by a rolling peal of thunder. Tenten shivered and moved closer to Neji. It was colder in the changing air pressure. The electric lights wavered and held, but new shadows seemed to dance about the battle-scarred room.

Tomui was breathing heavily from where he had been bound and thrown to the floor. Lee stood close at hand, ready to respond if the occasion warranted it.

"Where's Nazuki?" Tenten asked quietly.

Tomui glared at her and kept up his silence.

"You better answer her questions," Neji said harshly, "or _I_ will start asking them."

"I'm not afraid of you," Tomui spat.

Tenten sighed. "Did you idiots remember my scrolls?"

"Neji did," Lee said. Neji masked his surprise at the blatant lie. He could think of no reason for Lee to lie, but now was not the time to address it. Neji simply fetched the scrolls off his back and handed them to her.

She selected the largest and thickest of the two and unrolled it slowly. She was in no rush and it felt dramatic. Tenten bit her thumb and dragged it across the paper in a long, bloody line. The empty air above the scroll was replaced with a large variety of disturbing and deadly weapons.

"Take your pick," Tenten said coldly.

"You have no humanity!"

"And you locked me in a closet for a week, so go ahead, Tomui; take your pick."

Tomui eyed the weaponry and something inside him broke. "I'll talk."

"Bummer. I missed my violent weapons. Hey, Neji, can we go mime-hunting later?"

"No."

Tenten pouted. "Fine."

"Ahem," Neji coughed.

"Right," Tenten said and turned back to Tomui again. "Where is Nazuki?"

"Go down to the basement and move the large crates by the furnace. You'll find a secret passage. Nazuki-sama is at the end." Tomui glared through his entire speech.

"And what was Nazuki planning to do with Kuma's power?"

"I don't know."

"You see this mace—"

"I don't know!" Tomui shouted desperately. "Ren knew, but Nazuki-sama never told me!"

"How disappointing," Tenten said. "Well, that about settles it. What shall we do with him?" She looked at Neji nervously, afraid that he was going to fall into a homicidal rage, but he looked back at her calmly.

"If you two can take on Nazuki, my friends, I will keep watch here," Lee said brightly. Neji gazed at Tenten. "Can we defeat him or do we need Lee?"

Tenten nodded; confidence surged within her. "We can do it."

* * *

The basement was cold. Tenten shivered and rubbed her arms vigorously, envying the warm jacket wrapped around Neji's shoulders. Together they pushed aside the large crates that Tomui had spoken of and gazed down the passage it revealed. It was a long, narrow hallway that twisted and turned so that Neji and Tenten could not see the end even if it hadn't been completely pitch black inside.

"Got one of those glowy things with you?" Tenten asked.

"You mean a glow stick?"

"Yeah, a glowy thing."

"A _glow stick_."

"Don't make me kill you."

Neji rolled his eyes. He had missed their pointless arguments. He reached into his bag and withdrew a plain, barely transparent rod as long as his forearm. He held it lengthwise between his two hands and snapped the rod. It did not bend or break, but rather crackled brilliant before returning to its original shape, now glowing with a greenish hue.

Sakura had explained the chemistry of the glow sticks at one point, but he had immediately forgotten, confident in Lee's ability to memorize everything Haruno Sakura said should the information ever prove vital. "Shall we?" Neji asked, gesturing down the tunnel.

"After you," Tenten replied, privately admitting to herself that some of her reasoning to wanting to walk behind Neji was that he happened to look very good from the back and walking in front of him she wouldn't be able to see anything.

Neji shrugged and started down the passage, secretly disappointed that he would not achieve the view of Tenten that Tenten would of himself.

The darkness halted time. Minutes, seconds, hours—they were all irrelevant. They did not speak as they walked down the seemingly endless passage. They listened to the other breath, fighting back urges it wasn't the right time for.

Neji glanced back at Tenten her eyes glittering strangely in the greenish light of the glow stick. Somehow he found it beautiful. He felt his breath stick resolutely in his throat and he swallowed profusely in an effort to clear it. Words struggled past the tip of his tongue. "Tenten," he uttered roughly." He cleared his throat loudly. "Tenten," he repeated more fluidly.

Tenten looked at him expectantly and Neji felt his courage waning. "Yes?"

"Tenten I—" he began.

"Wait a minute, Neji," she said, oblivious as to what she was interrupting which was odd since Tenten was normally far more perceptive (In retrospect she would blame it on being locked in a closet for a week). "I see the light at the end of the tunnel," she said, laughing slightly at the old cliché. "Stay away from the light, Neji," she teased.

He laughed quietly with her, feeling broken.

Nazuki looked up briefly from his-her book. For a moment he-she had heard a noise coming from the floor below. But that would be impossible. The only way in was through the secret passage which only he-she used. Nazuki rose from behind a desk. Something was not right and Nazuki planned to uncover exactly what.

Tenten and Neji crawled tentatively into a dimly lit room. Their speed was standard procedure when entering unknown territory regardless of the bizarre content of the room. In one corner was what had probably once been a very neat and orderly desk until it had succumbed to its current sloppy state covered in boxes and old newspaper clippings.

More curious than the desk, however, was the stack of wooden shipping crates all labeled with the destination: TO KONOHA. It appeared that Nazuki was a thief as well as a kidnapper. Neji strode toward the crates and as quietly as the task allowed, which was admitted not very quiet at all, pried one of the open. Uselessly, Tenten shushed him and glanced worriedly at the stairs on the far end of the room.

The creaking of wood and nails ceased and Tenten looked back at Neji. "What is it?" she whispered.

"Chakra amplification metal," Neji replied softly.

"What?" she said, giving her brain more time to put two and two together. And when it clicked she gasped. "That's what Nazuki is planning! He was going to put Kuma's chakra into the metal and probably raise an army of chakra-wielders."

Hollow clapping echoed behind them as Nazuki entered. Tenten stiffened and turned, seething with hate. "I'm impressed. Congratulations," Nazuki said in that disturbing, fluty voice.

"Nazuki," Tenten growled, mostly for Neji's benefit.

"And you know my name? My, you are bright."

"Why wouldn't I know your name?" Tenten asked slyly. "You only had me locked in a closet for a week."

Nazuki was visibly surprised. "You," the androgyne sputtered then realization dawned on Nazuki too quick for comfort. "Ah, a decoy. I should have known."

"You underestimated Kuma," Tenten replied.

"I did," Nazuki admitted. "That explains the personality."

Neji coughed to cover up an inappropriate laugh, but Tenten knew and glared at him anyway.

"So what now? You're going to fight me and bring me to justice?" Nazuki asked, laughing coldly. There was no warmth in the strange, whimsical gaze.

It was Tenten's turn to smirk. "Well, the villain hardly ever goes out quietly."

"Then who am I to break tradition?"

Tenten stiffened, waiting for Nazuki's attack. With all her watchfulness, she was still flung backward into the open crate of chakra metal. He winced in pain as the ragged edges of the raw metal tore at her skin. She blinked her eyes rapidly, confused and vaguely aware of the thunderous roar bursting out of Neji as he hurled toward Nazuki. Tenten struggled to get out of the box before any of the metal dug deeper into her skin than it already had.

She more or less fell off the box, thudding loudly on the floor. Quickly, Tenten pulled fragment of metal from her body. How had Nazuki surprised her liked that? It was obvious that Nazuki had wind natured chakra and had been manipulating the element into an attack, but how had Nazuki accomplished such a difficult feat without and hand seals or even words to concentrate the chakra?

Nazuki didn't have a soft voice. It was a voice that was immediately distinguishably, but Tenten hadn't heard him utter a single word. She glanced down at herself. She was scratched and bleeding all over. Her back ached from her rough landing. All this was in addition to the aches and pain of abduction.

Tenten steeled herself. She could fight. This was nothing, she told herself. Besides, Neji needed her. He was holding his own marvelously against Nazuki who had drawn a long, snake-like blade that glimmered even in the insubstantial light. But Neji looked tired, like her hadn't slept properly in days. Vaguely, she could detect a difference in his step. He was slower.

Her scrolls unrolled swiftly before her and Tenten bit her thumb to draw blood. A puff of smoke burst from the long red line she drew and in its place was a staff. The wood was dark and gleamed brighter than Nazuki's sword. Tenten spun the staff about herself experimentally, testing the weight and her strength.

She could not repress the grin that spread across her face. The simple weapon felt powerful in her hands. Tenten rushed in spinning the staff to build up momentum. Neji was not typically one to be distracted, and even if he was it was not for very long. But Nazuki was fast. All it took was a split second for Neji to lose focus and glance at the flurry of movement coming from behind him. Neji did not know how he had missed Nazuki's movements. Where had the forward thrust of the blade come from?

Neji's knees buckled. Nazuki's sword was embedded in his side. Neji gripped the blade in both hands as he went down and pulled himself off the sword, ignoring the cuts that had been made on his palms. The blood seemed trivial to him and he attempted to stand. Why was Tenten screaming his name? He was perfectly okay. He would be standing any minute…now…or perhaps not.

Things seemed to move twice as slow as Neji watched Nazuki swing his blade back. Nazuki was preparing for the death blow. Neji braced himself knowing he could not move in time. He blinked and in the next instant he realized he was not dead after all. Tenten had arrived in front of him, her wooden staff blocking the death blow.

"Tenten," he whispered, clutching a hand to his bloody side. He fingers quickly became scarlet. Neji gazed up at her. There was a fire in her eyes that he had never seen before.

Nazuki and Tenten drew their weapons back and struck again. The clamor of wood on steel reverberated slowly through Neji's skull out of time with that his eyes told him was a battle of speed and agility. He was falling down, his blood spilling everywhere.

Neji saw Tenten's mouth open wide and only a few seconds later did he know it was a cry of triumph. She had broken Nazuki's grip and the glimmering sword had gone flying far out of reach.

A snarl escaped Nazuki, the only remotely normal sound Tenten had ever heard leave the villain. She braced herself and swung the staff down in a powerful arc, reversing directions on a dime as Nazuki dodged.

She made contact and swept Nazuki facedown to the floor. Tenten sprang on Nazuki, twisting the androgyne's arms until she heard a satisfying crack. Nazuki's arms were broken. Tenten pulled a rope from her bag and tied Nazuki's legs together savagely. The leader was screaming in pain, but she didn't care. Neji was fading.

"Tenten," he gasped again, looking up at her wet eyes. She was kneeling next to him, pulling his hands from the bloody wound.

"Shh," she replied softly. "Don't talk." Tenten cleaned his wound methodically, whispering a warning when she was pouring on the antiseptic. He winced briefly only to relax a second later as Tenten applied the only healing jutsu she knew. It was enough to stop the bleeding.

Clarity returned to Neji now that he was no longer bleeding out. He blinked up at Tenten who looked grim and was coated with a thin layer of his own blood. Irrationally he reached out and took her hand. The bandages she had been unrolling fell to the floor. "Neji, I'm not done yet."

"This is important," he said weakly. Neji pulled her closer so that her face was only inches from his. She could barely feel his shallow breathing on her skin.

"What?"

"I missed you."

"I missed you too."

"A lot."

"I know."

"Because I love you."

Tenten's throat stuck and could only make a strangled noise in response.

"Tenten?" Neji asked worriedly, stroking her cheek. Tears spilled down her face. "I can't reach up to kiss you," he said. "Won't you come down here?"

With Neji gently pulling her down, she came. Neji forgot about his wound and tried to shift Tenten on top of him. Her elbow dug into his side. He cried out and they broke apart roughly.

Tenten leapt back. Her tears were gone and she smiled down at him. Neji was swearing like a sailor. She sighed and picked up the bandages that had started to roll away across the floor.

"Hold still."

* * *

**Author's Note: So here's the deal. If you want a sequel and a little more fluffiness continue on towards the epilogue. If you're sick of me and my story, well thanks for reading and I bear no ill will. It's been a great ride and I'd life to take a minute to thank those of you who have been reviewing every time I post: Ogro, KNO, Rin the Useless Girl, loves-emo-guys-with-hair, Ceridwen Inari, and Kyra-Mitsu. You guys have been great and I love you all (but not in a creepy way, so don't worry). And to everyone else who took the time to read and review, I thank you. It's been great.**


	11. So It Goes

_**Epilogue:**_ So It Goes

A gentle spring breeze blew through the open window of the transport vehicle. Neji bore the jarring of the horse-drawn carriage as best he could, but every now and then he needed Tenten to apply her minimal healing abilities to deaden the pain. They were traveling alone. Lee was in the identical carriage behind them, guarding Kuma and Shou. The young couple was bound for Konoha despite the protestations of Artsuma Takeda.

Tenten was gazing out the window when Neji interrupted her thoughts. "You never responded," he said. His voice was stronger than it had been two days ago.

"What?"

"When I told you I loved you," Neji explained, "you didn't say anything." Tenten felt her throat catching. "Is it that you don't love me?" Worry etched across his porcelain skin.

"It's—it's not that," Tenten mumbled.

"Then what?"

"Well, you're… you're Hyuga Neji and I'm… I'm just Tenten. You're not supposed to love a girl like me."

"Tenten, come here," Neji said, quelling her protests with a stern look. She crossed the carriage to sit next to him. Before Tenten could stop him, Neji She crossed the carriage to sit next to him. Before Tenten could stop him, Neji had taken her hands in his own and pulled her closer.

"I want you to listen carefully," Neji said with a ferocity that enthralled her. "I love you. When you were gone for a week—a measly week in which I didn't know what was happening to you—I was going through _hell_. You saw how I looked and that wasn't even the worst of it.

"I want to be with you. In a respectable amount of time I want to marry you. We will then proceed to have numerous Neji and Tenten juniors and we will train them all to be ninja prodigies. Okay?"

Tenten closed her sagging jaw. "Just one condition."

"Anything," Neji promised.

"We need better names than Neji and Tenten junior."

* * *

Spring became summer, became autumn, became winter. The seasons blended as leaves grew and fell from the trees one by one. Snow settled in a thin blanket over the Fire Country. Against the wishes of their genin, Neji and Tenten worked their teams outside in the snow, frequently receiving dirty looks from the younger people for their methods of keeping warm.

Neji and Tenten nestled together watching the genin complete their drill and laughing as Neji's exuberant Zei attempted to woo Tenten's calm Ashiwara ("Ashi-chan, watch this!"). Their fingers wove together in the cold and Tenten absently wondered when exactly Neji planned to put a ring on her left hand. He had teased her numerous times with jewelry boxes that contained only earrings or a bracelet, never a ring. Every time Neji had grinned from ear to ear and she had promptly smacked him for laughing at her after he was properly thanked for the gift.

In the distance, Tenten could see a flash of red mounting the snow banks. As the color drew closer she realized that it was Artsuma Kuma's vibrant red hair. Kuma stopped in front of them, panting. The genin paused to stare. "What is it?" Tenten asked, noting the panic in Kuma's eyes.

The fear brought back a glimmer of the old Kuma. For the most part, the young woman was completely transformed. She had only been living in the village for a year and already she had demonstrated tremendous capability and potential. Just a week ago she had been awards her forehead protector.

"Tsunade-sama just received word," Kuma said slowly, "that Nazuki has escaped." Kuma paused to let the first news of _his_ (for after Nazuki's capture and subsequent medical exams it was proven that he was indeed a man) escape sink in. "There's more. He left a message on his cell wall with his own blood. 'This is only the beginning. The powers will be united and the kingdom shall fall. Those who have stood in the way shall die.'"

Tenten felt a chill creep up her spine that had nothing to do with the cold. Neji's arm squeezed more tightly around her waist. She turned to the genin who stared at them half-puzzled, half-afraid and perhaps even angry somewhere in between. "Finish today's training at home," she told them curtly. "Do not speak of this to anyone yet and do not take any risks."

Neji pulled her to her feet. "We should go see Tsunade-sama," he said calmly. "Kuma, you had best bring Shou with you. I believe it may concern him."

Tenten closed her eyes and sighed. "I wasn't expecting this."

"If you think I'm going to let him lay a hand on you—"

"I know you wouldn't. Frankly, I worry more about you."

"Don't."

"Too late."

* * *

**Last Author's Note: If you made it to the epilogue I'm glad. As for the chapter title... sorry I've been reading _Slaughter house Five_ lately. I just have a quick question about your preferences for the sequel. How much are you willing to put up with my original characters, by this I mean Kuma and Shou and probably a new cast of genin for Neji and Tenten breifly mentioned in this story. I just want your opinions on the matter cause I know how annoying it can be to read other people's orignial characters in fanfiction sometimes. That's really the big thing i wanted to ask. You're all welcome to give me suggestions. As for expected release time, it's probably going to take somewhere between a month or two because I really ought to be focusing on college applications right now. When that torment is over I'll be back. Sigh, if only I could get paid for this... Anyway, thanks for reading. Love you all. MADNESSINMYMETHOD**


	12. Important Message For Former Readers

Hello, Everyone.

I know that chapters devoted to author's notes are technically against the rules, but it was really the only way I could get in touch with some of the old readers of this fic who still had it on alert and were probably waiting for the sequel. It's been almost a year since I promised that sequel and I've done a pretty terrible job about keeping that promise. Sorry. I had a slurry of other priorities and interests and completing a sequel that I promised fell by the wayside. Lately I've had issues keeping up with longer chaptered fics and though it hurts me to say it, I don't think I can produce a sequel for you guys on my own. Especially since I'll be starting college soon in the fall.

But, and if anyone reads the notes I put in my profile (doubt it), I've come up with a scatterbrained plan of sorts. Here is what I propose. Currently there is a tiny (TINY) bit of the sequel written and I have thought out a bit of the plot direction. I am willing to either A) collaborate with someone to finish the sequel to this story or B) discuss allowing someone else to finish the sequel.

If you are interested in either option please send me a message and we'll discuss it. I fully understand that both of these options sign away a significant portion of my creative control, but I feel so terrible about not making a sequel, when there really needs to be a sequel that I can't let it go.

Anyway, starting now, I will leave this message up for two weeks. If anyone is interested please let me know and I will have my decision for you in two weeks. Oh and hopefully I'm not being presumptuous. I had a lot of success with a Skip Beat story lately, so it's quite possible that I've gotten a big head because of it. Please forgive me.

So, one more apology before I go.

_MadnessinmyMethod


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